Visual artist burns works of art after collectors choose digital option

British Damien Hirst has become one of the most talked about names on the internet since he decided to burn his own works of art. Don't worry, he's not crazy: he's eliminating physical works that were sold in digital format, through the so-called NTF (blockchain-based assets that represent digital images). The "eccentric" attitude became a piece of advertising, attracting even more followers to the artist's Twitter and possible new buyers.

Marketing ploy? Manifestation? Or more of an artistic process? Fans, followers, critics, journalists, artists…everyone is talking about Damien Hirst and the works he is burning.

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Collectors had to choose between keeping the NFT – certificate of authenticity used to guarantee ownership and exclusivity of a virtual object – which reportedly sold for $2.000, or exchange it for physical art. Some 5.149 chose the latter, while 4.851 opted for NFTs, according to London's Newport Street Gallery. (Reuters) *

To journalists, the British artist said that non-exchanged NFT artworks would be destroyed and vice versa. On Instagram, he said he would burn 1.000 works of art this Tuesday (11).

Broadcasting the event live, the Turner Prize winner and his assistants used tongs to deposit individual pieces stacked in piles on fireplaces in the gallery as viewers watched.

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“A lot of people think I'm burning millions of dollars worth of art, but I'm not, I'm completing the transformation of these physical artworks into NFTs by burning the physical versions,” explains Hirst. “The value of digital or physical art that is difficult to define at best will not be lost, it will be transferred to the NFT once they are burned.”

The works, created in 2016 with enamel paint on handmade paper and each numbered, titled, stamped and signed, will be burned until the close of the “A Moeda” exhibition, on October 30th.

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