A receipt for a 1959 imaginary artwork piece to sell for $550,000

A 1959 receipt for an imaginary art piece will soon be going up for auction at Sotheby's, where it will sell for thousands.

Published
Updated
1 minute & 21 seconds read time

Sotheby's expects it will get anywhere between $330,000 and $551,000 for a receipt that transfers ownership of an imaginary art piece.

A receipt for a 1959 imaginary artwork piece to sell for $550,000 01

The 1959 receipt comes from French artist Yves Klein who conceived the idea of allowing lovers of art to own "zones of immaterial pictorial sensibility" or "zones de sensibilite picturale immaterielle", as translated in French. Sotheby's explains on its website that on April 28, 1958, "The Void" art exhibition was held at the Irs Clert Gallery in Paris, which had all of its contents removed for the opening. The French artist said that despite the gallery being empty, it was "saturated with 'pictorial sensibility in its pure state.'"

Sotheby's explained, "A few months later, the finalization of the receipts and the ritual accompanying the 'transfer' made it possible to inscribe this 'sensibility' in the field of visual arts for good, and for each collector to become the definitive owner of a 'zone of immaterial pictorial sensibility." Sotheby's compared the receipt concept and NFTs/blockchain technology, saying that Klein's receipt could be viewed as a precursor to the emergence of a new multi-billion-dollar market.

A receipt for a 1959 imaginary artwork piece to sell for $550,000 02

Adding, "there were three transfer ceremonies - all well documented. Some have likened the transfer of a zone of sensitivity and the invention of receipts as an ancestor of the NFT, which itself allows the exchange of immaterial works. If we add that Klein kept a register of the successive owners of the 'zones', it is easy to find here another revolutionary concept - the blockchain."

The auctioneer explained that the receipt that will soon become available for bid comes from the Collection Loic Malle and has been on display multiple times over the past decades. Sotheby's will begin the auction at 5 pm in Paris on April 6.

Buy at Amazon

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$20.20$20.20$21.32
* Prices last scanned on 3/27/2024 at 3:12 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.
NEWS SOURCE:newsweek.com

Jak joined the TweakTown team in 2017 and has since reviewed 100s of new tech products and kept us informed daily on the latest science, space, and artificial intelligence news. Jak's love for science, space, and technology, and, more specifically, PC gaming, began at 10 years old. It was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on an old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms. Instead of typical FPS, Jak holds a very special spot in his heart for RTS games.

Newsletter Subscription

Related Tags