NFTs of Kim Whan-ki's ‘Universe’ auctioned at highest price in nation

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of South Korean artist Kim Whan-ki’s “Universe” sold at 737 million won in an auction.

XXBLUE, a subsidiary of Seoul Auction Blue, announced on Saturday that three NFT editions of “Universe” were auctioned at 194 Ethereum or 737 million won at Upbit NFT, the crypto exchange's NFT marketplace platform, recording the nation’s highest auction price as an NFT edition.

The 1st edition sold at 77 Ethereum (approx. 290 million won) while the 2nd and 3rd were auctioned at 58.5 Ethereum (220 million won) each. They were Kim Whan-ki’s first NFT-version pieces that were put up at auction.

“Universe,” a blue color dot painting produced in 1971 by Kim Whan-ki, was auctioned at 88 million Hong Kong dollars (approx. 13.2billion won) on Christie's Hong Kong in 2019, making it the first South Korean work of art that exceeded the 10-billion-won threshold.