An NFT version of an arrest warrant for South African icon Nelson Mandela raised $130,550 at auction, with proceeds going to a museum on the history of the fight against ‘apartheid.
South Africa’s first black president was arrested on August 5, 1962 and imprisoned for 27 years.
The reserve price at the Saturday March 26 auction in Cape Town was $61,800 but the non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, “were sold for $130,550 by an online buyer”, said Sunday March 28 to AFP Ahren Posthumus, CEO of the digital auction platform Momint. “The proceeds from the NFT Mandela will go to the Liliesleaf Museum, to keep its doors open and get back afloat,” clarified Posthumus. Liliesleaf Farm, home of the ANC during apartheid (African National Congress), closed in September 2021 due to financial difficulties.
Selling artwork in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, uses the same technology as cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The buyer receives a verified digital token, which proves that the artwork is an original. “It’s really a unique and new way to generate income”Nicholas Wolpe, founder of the Liliesleaf Farm museum, told AFP.
The original document, dated 1961, now yellowed and with staple holes on one side, is handwritten in English and Afrikaans. It has been kept in the archives of the Liliesleaf Farm museum in Johannesburg since 2006, according to Mr Wolpe.
Between 1961 and 1963, the farm, located in an upmarket suburb of Johannesburg, served as the secret headquarters of the then banned African National Congress fighting against white minority rule. Mandela hid there for a time, disguised as a farmhand, wearing overalls, before setting off to raise funds for his cause abroad.