World’s richest artist supports blockchain technology by burning more than 4,000 of his paintings

Damien Hirst, the world’s richest artist, burned 4,851 physical originals of his paintings the day before the opening of the Frieze Art Fair in London, one of the world’s largest contemporary art fairs. In such a way, Hirst demonstrated his passion for blockchain technologies and his belief in the future of NFTs.

Damien Hirst created 10,000 paintings, each of which has its own digital counterpart. The buyers of the paintings had a chance to choose whether to keep the physical painting or get the NFT by destroying the original. 5149 collectors decided to exchange NFTs for physical versions of the paintings, while 4851 chose to burn the originals in favor of digital items.

«It is no coincidence that all governments decorate coins and banknotes with works of art. They do it to make us believe in money. Without art, it’s hard for us as humans to believe in anything ,» Hirst described his project The Art Newspaper as «the most exciting artistic expression to date» that touches on the idea of art as currency and a means of saving.

The bold idea not only helped Hirst reach more people, but also allowed him to make money. Hirst’s NFT collection called «The Currency» is traded on OpenSea. The minimum price of the paintings at the time of writing is 5.2 ETH (about $ 6,700). Previously, the artist sold the same NFTs for $ 2,000.