The $69 million JPG

The market for digital art reached a breathtaking high this past week when a JPG sold for $69.3 million at Christie's New York. To put that in context, a masterwork by Vincent Van Gogh brought in "only" $16 million last October. Only two other living artists—Jeff Koons and David Hockney—have seen their works hammer higher than Beeple (aka Mike Winkelmann) did on Thursday. Nothing physical, no box, no plaque, came with the purchase.  Everydays: The First 5000 Days by Beeple, which was minted on Feb. 16, 2021. Source: Christie's "The first day of bidding was one of the most magical events in my auction career," says Noah Davis, a specialist at Christie's who organized the sale. "I've never seen anything like it." And that was said about the price when shot from $100 to $1 million on Feb. 25, not when it jumped from $22 million in the final 10 minutes on Mar. 11. Everydays: the First 5,000 Days is a mosaic of 5,000 artworks made over the last 13 years by Winkelmann. Included in the mosaic are images of Abraham Lincoln spanking a baby Donald Trump, a giant rabbit eating children on a playground, and a muscled Tom Hanks beating up an anthropomorphic representation of the coronavirus. Biden Wins, digital art animation by Beeple Source: Beeple The real purchase here—more than the digital file itself, which can be endlessly copied like a photograph—is the non-fungible token (NFT) to which the artwork is attached. "Minted" just last month, the NFT is essentially a certificate of authenticity that runs on blockchain technology. Trade in NFTs have boomed recently for everything from sports highlights to collectible tweets (Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's first is going for over $2 million). It's a phenomenon uniquely suited to the art market. The buyer of the $69 million Beeple Everydays NFT is Metakovan. Although he refused to give his real name, he's the Singapore-based financier of Metapurse, a crytpo-based fund that acquires NFTs and other virtual properties; it claims to be the largest NFT fund in the world.  Metakovan paid Christie's in Ether, the second-biggest digital coin. Accepting crytpocurrency is a first for the 254-year-old auction house and a major nod to the payment form's legitimacy. Past sales by Beeple have included both the digital file and physical collectibles, like a coin.  Source:: Beeple This isn't the first time that Metakovan has bought works by Beeple. In a December auction of Beeple's art on the online marketplace Nifty Gateway, Metakovan purchased 20 single-edition images for a combined $2.2 million. He later fractionalized them and resold to investors. As of Saturday afternoon, those works had a market cap of $210 million. Looked in that light—the Beeple NFT buyer has an NFT company himself—the purchase is basically a $69.3 million marketing expense that promotes the industry.  "I think this is going to be a billion-dollar piece," Metakovan said in an interview after the sale. —Justin Ocean What's an NFT?  A Quicktake primer on non-fungible tokens and the boom in digital art they have set off. Crypto Whale in Singapore Is Buyer of $69 Million Beeple NFT Metakovan, the anonymous founder of an NFT investment fund, was confirmed by Christie's as the buyer. NFTs Are Booming, But They're Nothing New in the Art Market Tokens backed by digital art may seem weird, but they have a precedent in photography collecting. Market Manipulation Chatter Rises as Digital Art Scene Explodes In a world where identities are abstractions, claiming wash trading is at once plausible and yet nearly impossible to prove. The Case for Buying and Steering Clear of NFTs Here's what you should know about crypto collectibles. Lunch Break Enough with the avocado toast, have you tried avocado pesto? David Kinch, the Michelin three-star chef behind Manresa in Los Gatos, Calif., offers up an irreverent take on the "greatest sauce in Italian cuisine" in this week's Lunch Break column.  Kinch's combination of avocado and basil pesto sounds like a disaster. But according to Bloomberg food editor Kate Krader, it's brilliant, like an ominous blind date that leads to love. Avocado pesto—maybe the logical follow up to peas in guacamole. Photographer: Aya Brackett, courtesy of Penguin Random House The cubes of avocado melt slightly into the pasta, enhancing the creaminess and emphasizing the garlic. "Everything works—even the color works," says Kinch, who got the idea from a Peruvian chef he met. When you do get the odd bite of avocado, it's a refreshing and fruity reminder that it's in the mix. But it's not overpowering.  And though he recommends that everybody learn to make their own pesto, properly, with a mortar and pestle, Kinch reluctantly signs off on using a store-bought version, "as long as you know it's delicious." The following recipe is adapted from  At Home in the Kitchen, by David Kinch and Devin Fuller. Ingredients for fresh-made pesto. Krader also purchased store-bought for comparison purposes. Photographer: Kate Krader/Bloomberg Pasta With Pesto and Avocado Serves 4 1/2  cup pesto (recipe here) or your favorite store-bought variety 1 lb. spaghetti, trofie, bucatini, or tagliatelle 1 ripe avocado, peeled, seeded, and cut into ½-inch pieces Salt Finely grated Pecorino Romano, for serving (optional) Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt to taste. Scoop the pesto into a bowl large enough to hold the pasta. Whether you make your own pesto or not, the pasta recipe is delicious. Photographer: Kate Krader/Bloomberg Add the pasta to the boiling water and follow the package instructions to cook to al dente. Just before it's finished cooking, ladle ¼ cup of the pasta water into the pesto and stir to thin. Don't worry if the pesto looks too thin: The sauce will thicken from the pasta starch. Reserve an additional 1 cup of pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta and stir into the pesto, adding some reserved pasta water, if necessary, to get a good consistency on the sauce. When the pasta is coated, gently stir in the avocado. Finish with a pinch of salt. Divide among four bowls and serve immediately, garnishing with Pecorino if desired. 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