Receipt For Invisible Art Just Sold For Nearly $1.2 Million

Image via Sotheby's

This receipt doesn’t guarantee exchanges; nor does it accompany a tangible product. Yet, somebody with money to burn just shelled out €1,063,500 (almost US$1.2 million) for it.

With this purchase, the buyer will hold the proof of possession of an invisible piece of art.

The backstory is just as bizarre as the sale itself. The sheet was issued by French post-war artist Yves Klein, who—prior to the project this receipt was a part of—was famed for displaying a cabinet in an empty room and calling it a day. He named the exhibit The Void, and it attracted thousands of visitors.

In 1958, following the success of The Void, Klein went on to sell a series of invisible artworks, each priced at a weight of pure gold. The only visible aspect from his end of the bargain was a receipt. But wait, there’s more.

Buyers were given one of two options for the receipts—they could either keep theirs or agree to have the paper burnt. If they chose to destroy their invoice, they’d be determined the “definitive owner” of the invisible artwork. And to seal the deal, Klein would toss half the gold payment into the Seine River.

If the concept sounds familiar, that’s because it’s pretty much how a non-fungible token works. When someone buys an NFT, they won’t obtain a physical piece but a record in the blockchain affirming ownership.

In honoring what has been regarded as the earliest NFT, the item’s auctioneer Sotheby’s said it would accept cryptocurrency as payment for the receipt.

Notably, the final bid, made by a private European collection, more than doubled the estimated price for the piece of paper, which was valued at an already eye-watering amount of €500,000.

According to the auction house, it hasn’t been decided if the buyer will pay for the work in cryptocurrency.

[via The Guardian and UPI, cover image via Sotheby’s]