The works of the world’s richest artist will be digitized in the form of NFT tokens, and physical paintings will be burned

The world’s richest artist Damien Hirst has announced that he will burn thousands of his paintings as part of his annual project The Currency.

As it became known, Damien Hirst, who creates both physical and NFT paintings, offered the owners of his works to choose: to leave the work of art in the usual format or to burn it and give preference to NFT. 4,851 collectors chose to burn their purchased artwork in favor of the non-fungible token, while the majority of 5,149 NFT holders chose to exchange them for physical versions of the artwork.

The Currency

The year is over boom 💥 that was quick! and we have all had to decide: NFT or physical? The final numbers are: 5,149 physicals and 4,851 NFTs (meaning I will have to burn 4,851 corresponding physical Tenders). pic.twitter.com/xCUJ0gviZ0

— Damien Hirst (@hirst_official) July 27, 2022

The paintings will be burned every day starting from September 9, which is when an exhibition of Hirst’s works will be opened at the V&A Museum in London. «I believe in art in all its forms, but the field of fungible tokens is so exciting! I know the least about it, but I already love the NFT community, it's amazing,» said Damien Hirst.

However, Hearst should note that this year, sales of NFT art fell 50 times, so it is unknown what the situation will be in the future and whether the richest artist will receive the desired profits. Thus, at the annual auction of NFT art, Christie’s raised $ 4.6 million, and last year artists sold their own works at the same auction and received $ 150 million.