#118 | World's Most Expensive Painting 'Salvator Mundi' Undergoes NFT Treatment

Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes

Hey friends,

Great to have you joining us! On today’s edition we have some exciting stories covering the world’s most expensive painting becoming an NFT and some free goodies from Amazon! Let’s just jump into it.

World’s Most Expensive Painting Becoming NFT?

After being sold at a Christie's auction for a staggering $450.3 million USD in 2017 that shattered any previous art sale records, the world’s most expensive painting Salvator Mundi is set to be transformed into an NFT and enter the digital realm forever. Available to mint by digital asset platform ElmonX and in collaboration with leading image licensing company Bridgeman Images, this Renaissance masterpiece by Da Vinci marks a significant discussion for the future of art in our newly digital age.

The Salvator Mundi is a controversial painting, with some experts believing that it is a genuine work by Da Vinci and others thinking that it is a copy. Its acquisition by the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman also spiced things up, since the exact whereabouts of the painting is now unknown. A spokesperson for Bridgeman Images told The Art Newspaper the partnership allows licensing the original painting’s images to ElmonX, similar to how it currently does for high-quality images and videos to advertisers, filmmakers, publishers, and designers across all industries.

What this means is the NFT itself will not be directly linked to the IRL painting, and acts simply as public proof that you have only licensed the right to display the high-res image of the ‘Salvador Mundi’ painting. Despite the continued controversy around this painting and now the “NFT version” of it, the conversation it’s creating around integrating Web3 emerging technologies with the traditional art world is an important one to have due to the advantages NFTs have in accessibility, trading, and authentication. With the original Salvator Mundi auction house Christie’s launching their own NFT marketplace, it will be interesting to see how the art market evolves in the years to come and how big of a part NFTs will play in it.

Amazon Gives Away NFTs To Prime Members

When it comes to Web2 brands it’s hard to get bigger than Amazon. Fortunately, they have been a recurring company pushing towards a Web3 future ever since back in April last year their CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC that he is very optimistic about the future of NFTs: “You know, I expect that NFTs will continue to grow very significantly”. Since then, the Amazon Web3 waters have been quite still with announcements of an Amazon NFT marketplace, but now we have some definitive action with Amazon giving free NFTs to its Prime subscribers.

Specifically, Amazon's free NFTs come from the Web3 gaming space with Mojo Melee being the game of choice for the promotion. Mojo Melee is an “auto battler” game accessible on web browsers and mobile, with Prime subscribers having the opportunity for one NFT champion collectible character “Gwyn Rockhopper” and 885 Ore, a non-crypto in-game currency. The giveaway is part of a six-month partnership between Amazon Prime and Mojo Melee where Prime subscribers will be eligible for monthly drops of in-game items to help give a competitive edge in the game.

Besides the game NFTs, importantly the idea of Amazon’s involvement in NFTs is a major development for the space, with their current 164 million prime subscribers it puts into scope the onboarding power Amazon has to execute on. “They can onboard millions of users without educating people about self-custody, without educating people how to [set up] a MetaMask wallet” said one source. This is probably one of the first of many NFT initiatives from Amazon, showing the growing interest in NFTs and hinting at mainstream adoption is just around the corner with the continued Web3 support from these traditional brands.

The NFT market is showing signs of life again, with big news surrounding the DeGods Season III announcement (new art!!) and a new crypto-native social platform.

DeGods is entering Season III and y00ts is entering Season 2. What does that mean? Well, not only is y00ts migrating from Polygon to Ethereum to join DeGods, but DeGods is changing its art to a flat, muted color palette that brings both brands together to cater to a more mass audience.

However, the community was expecting a larger announcement.

Founder Frank immediately came out to apologize for disappointing the community and promises that the next announcement — coming Sunday — will make things better. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, new app FriendTech has taken Crypto Twitter by storm.

The app, built on the BASE blockchain, allows users who have linked their Twitter accounts to sell ‘Shares’, which get increasingly more expensive and allow access to gated group chats where users can interact with the accounts that they hold Shares of.

The ‘Airdrop’ tab leaves much to the imagination as well… and we may see an interesting uptick in adoption as more crypto influencers hop onboard the hype train.

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.18