By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 17th, 2024
The NFT piece is a photo of Emily and it is dubbed “Buying Myself Back: A Model for Redistribution”.
As many would agree, the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) represents a new dimension in the capability of blockchain technology and crypto. In advancing the push for these NFTs to get into the mainstream, American model, Emily Ratajkowski is selling an NFT of herself at popular British auction house Christie’s.
https://twitter.com/emrata/status/1392852522927333376
The NFT piece is a photo of Emily and it is dubbed “Buying Myself Back: A Model for Redistribution”. It depicts the story of how in 2014, the model repurchased a piece of her photograph from Richard Prince, an artist that had previously enlarged an earlier picture of the model in a swimsuit. For the photoshoot, she was paid just $150.
The enlarged piece Prince put up was priced at $90,000 but was later repurchased by Emily and her boyfriends at the time for $81,000. The photograph NFT of the model up for auction features her standing in front of the original picture in her New York Apartment, and comes with no starting price. Emily believes the sale will give her more control over her image.
“Works of unnamed muses sell for millions of dollars and build careers of traditionally male artists, while the subjects of these works receive nothing,” she wrote on Instagram. “NFTs carry the potential to allow women ongoing control over their image and the ability to receive rightful compensation for its usage and distribution.”
Taking a cue from previous NFT sales on Christie’s including Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5,000 Days, the payment for auctioned works are usually made in digital currencies such as Ethereum (ETH). The Emily piece will however be sold in United States Dollar per a New York Times report, citing a Christie’s spokeswoman. The NFT piece was minted and added to the Ethereum blockchain using the OpenSea NFT marketplace.
Beyond NFT Trend, Emily Ratajkowski Is Laser Eyes on Bitcoin
Emily appears to be more than a fan of digital currencies in general, and not just embroiled in her newfound discovery and love for NFTs. Joining the #LaserEyes Meme campaign on Twitter, a move that is targeted at getting the price of Bitcoin to a price valuation of $100,000 and above.
As seen, Emily is all Laser eyes while announcing her NFT auction, a gesture that depicts she is bullish on crypto and the industry in general. The #LaserEyes Meme campaign has garnered massive support on the social media platform Twitter where it notably became a trend back in February. Amongst the top users of the platform that has joined the campaign include Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR), Michael Saylor, whose company, MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), Elon Musk, the CEO of electric automaker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) and SpaceX.
While Emily appears to be reigniting the fire of the campaign which seems to have cooled down, many are still optimistic about BTC hitting the price valuation and more this year. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $51,092.29, down 20.96% from its all-time high of $64,863.10 according to data from CoinMarketCap.