The renowned auction house Bailey, Mathé & Hunt organized the world’s first digital artist auction during Art Hack Day “Going Dark” at LEAP in Berlin, September 28, 2013. 

In a society where personhood is defined by online participation, 7 famous new media artists sold their Facebook profiles to the applause of an ecstatic audience for a record-breaking €1.3M!  (DCF valuation based on actual purchase price for 24h ownership, assuming 10 more productive years per artist and near 0 interest rate since treasury bills go for 100 cents on the dollar;-).

Here’s the breakdown by artist, lifetime valuation (and purchase price): 

• Anthony Antonellis — €290,000 (€80 for 24h)
• Kim Asendorf — €250,000 (€70 for 24h)
• Darsha Hewitt — €180,000 (€50 for 24h)
• Mystery Pack, later revealed to contain Jeremy Bailey, Jamie Allen, Barry Threw — €350,000 (€95 for 24h)
• TWEAK festival — €250,000 (€70 for 24h)

The profiles will be leased for 24h to their new owners on Wednesday November 13, after which they’ll be returned to the artists formerly known as Kim, Anthony etc. While the buyers won’t own the profiles for a lifetime, 24h is definitely better than 15 min of fame.

↬ RSVP for the transfer ceremony here   UPDATE: Read about what happened during the transfer here 

Digital identities as artworks - the most significant sale of a lifetime.

It’s no wonder these Facebook profiles are worth more than the estimated value of participating artists’ oeuvre. Digital identities are perfect artworks. They are unique and uncopiable. They constitute generative art in its purest form, taking on their own life long after the artist has deceased. Just imagine the possibilities if Warhol were still trolling us online! …Speaking of commercial artists, the auction raises the question of how to make a living: Should art be sold? Which is more liberating: the prospect of economic freedom or the ability to make art without pressure from the market? Is the Faustian bargain of selling our online personas in order to maintain artistic integrity worthwhile? 

Gallery owners, Bourgeoisie - delight!

Economic capital can finally be directly transformed into cultural capital. After all, buyers always aspired to own the artist more than their art. We endorse this evolution and encourage artists to breed new profiles and resell them years later (like fine wines they age better than their makers). 

Even buyers outside the art world will find great utility in this new market. After all, the most desirable object for anyone who wants to go dark is an established, credible Facebook profile (& the intelligence community pays a premium for this asset class). Sadly, some people view selling their Facebook profiles as the first world equivalent of selling a kidney. They chose to ‘delete’ their profiles, thereby destroying value :(

A stock exchange for digital artists

As capitalists we call for a stock exchange for digital personas. The auction proved that some people are worth more than others. The actual account transfer would be need to be fully anonymous to guarantee the value of the asset and each new account holder would of course need to take care to increase the value of his or her investment over time. Trashing a profile would be economically irrational as well as culturally nihilist. 

In a sense, this exchange would be the world’s first genuinely crowd-sourced art piece, a monument to the ingenuity of our capitalist overlords. 

Thank you, 

Bailey, Mathé & Hunt