We don’t stop NFTs anymore. These non-fungible tokens, ie certificates of authenticity and ownership of virtual objects, are all the rage and are investing in new areas every day, upsetting the notion of traditional ownership. Julian Lennon thus announced on Monday January 24 the auction in the form of NFT of a series of objects from his personal collection relating to his father and the Beatles, via the Californian auction house Julien’s Auction, on February 7. A special sale since Julian Lennon, by the grace of the NFTs, will not need to physically part with his precious memories.
The sale includes the black cape John Lennon wore in the 1965 film Help! (NFT estimated between $10,000 and $20,000) and the Afghan coat he wore on the set of the film Magical Mystery Tour in 1967 (NFT estimated between $8,000 and $10,000), as well as three Gibson guitars given by John Lennon to his son (each estimated between $6,000 and $8,000).
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Major lot of this sale: Paul McCartney’s handwritten notes for the song Hey Jude, a Beatles hit released in 1968, which was originally called Hey Jules, McCartney having written it to comfort 5-year-old Julian Lennon during the divorce between his parents Cynthia and John. The NFT of this handwritten document is estimated between $50,000 and $70,000. The NFT version of these notes from Hey Jude is presented as an animation where the words are gradually written on the page. As a bonus, Julian Lennon accompanies each of the lots with an audio recording in which he shares his memories related to the object in question.
We asked the NFT specialist Jean Minguet, director of the econometrics department of Artprice (leading site for information on the art market), to enlighten us on this booming market and on this sale in particular .
The NFT market is changing very quickly. Until now, it seemed devoted to digital works only. This is no longer the case ?
John Minguet : Initially, NFTs were a solution for selling what is called “tech art”, ie works that circulated on the internet and escaped any market. When a creator wanted to share his works with someone, he lost possession of them. NFTs have made it possible to create a certificate that allows the work to circulate but someone to have possession of it. It’s a different mental pattern than the traditional market, in that you own something that you don’t physically own. But you have a certificate with future possibilities, especially in the metaverse. In addition to art, this new market already concerns areas such as music, cinema, sport, video games and fashion.
Is this sale something new, are there precedents?
NFT technology has been around since 2017 and the one that is used today since 2018, so it is very recent. In 2021, during an auction at Christie’s, a digital work by the artist Beeple soared to 69 million dollars, which caused a lot of noise. This has opened a lot of doors, including those of museums, such as the Uffizi Museum in Florence, which has put several works on sale in the form of NFTs, including a Michelangelo. The Julian Lennon sale is a first of its kind, but in NFT there are often firsts, especially since the goal is still to surprise and innovate. Musicians have already sold NFTs, including Justin Bieber. In France, Booba sold his last album in this form.
But what’s the point of buying a guitar for several thousand euros if you can’t pick it up and play it?
If you had this John Lennon guitar, would you play it? It is an object to exhibit, to say that we have it, to look at it. This guitar will probably never be for sale, it will stay in the Lennon family and will eventually be donated to a museum. The NFT allows a lot of people to sell things that are inaccessible and for the buyer it is a way to approach the acquisition of this thing a little. It doesn’t really make sense today. But there are prospects for the future.
So NFTs are only of interest in a future metaverse?
Yes. But I’m going to come back to the art world, which is our domain at Artprice. When major collectors buy works at auction, multi-million works, then never lend them and end up giving them to a museum, I don’t really see the point of having this work, except to make a montage financial. The interest is all the same the prestige of owning them or giving them to museums, like that of the MET, which writes the name of the donor in small letters at the bottom of each work. It is a form of philanthropism. Today NFT is more of a game, to see who buys and who is built in this metaverse.
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Do the estimated prices for the sale of Julian Lennon seem reasonable to you?
For me, yes. It’s very personal, but in my opinion, as long as it stays in the five figures it’s fine. When it reaches millions it becomes very violent. For someone somewhat wealthy who adores Lennon to be able to put $40,000 on an NFT guitar, I think that’s a lot, but I can see it. After, a million it becomes crazy. Why not ten million or 100 million?
Most NFT transactions are currently done directly from the seller to the collector, via dedicated platforms. Why does Julian Lennon go through an auction house?
Because the NFT market has its own somewhat encrypted codes. It really is a particular aesthetic and today it remains difficult to attract classic buyers. Traditional auction houses are going to be a good way to reach them. Especially since auctions are well suited to NFTs. We will not go through a gallery with a fixed price, we will rather be in a kind of jungle with who will be ready to put the most. It’s a bit of a problem on the disruptive side: this market doesn’t really have any rules. Anyone can create an NFT and it’s up to the buyer to make sure they don’t get tricked, especially since in this universe everyone operates under a pseudonym. There you had a starting price of $1,000 for Hey Jude, and I looked we are already at 47,000 so these are a bit high prices to boost the market.
The notion of classic property is completely turned upside down with NFTs, but Julian Lennon still thought it was good to accompany his NFTs with a little something extra (audio recordings). Why ?
Many people today, unfamiliar with NFTs, are still skeptical. To attract them, we can try to find bridges between the material world and the virtual world. This is undoubtedly what Julian Lennon wanted to do. Major American gallery owners are trying to link in NFTs, via what are called “smart contracts”, something physical, tangible, which can also be, for example, a studio visit. Because if you are only in the abstract you risk disappointing the traditional buyer. It’s an instant purchase that is put directly into your “wallet”, your electronic wallet. So if you can’t see the work, if you can’t do anything with it except resell it, that’s a little disappointing.
This market seems only speculative.
Yes, it is doubly speculative. It’s speculative in financial terms but it’s also a developing universe, so tomorrow it will probably be worth a lot, and owning NFTs could become a real vector of social recognition. Where a form of faith comes into play is whether it will work or whether it will work. I think it’s going to take because there are too many clues showing that this world is being consolidated, but it’s true that there is still the physical weight. We can say that Julian Lennon is just taking advantage of this new technology to sell something he did not want to part with. He takes no risks. Right now NFTs may seem like the easiest way to bail out the coffers. Nevertheless, I notice that the Michelangelo put up for sale by the Uffizi Museum in Florence in the form of NFT was finally sold at auction for 144,000 euros. Ok, that’s not bad. But for a Michelangelo, it’s nothing at all. Maybe one day, if the NFT becomes important, they will bite their fingers to have sold this work for 144,000 euros when it was perhaps worth millions!
The Lennon Connection auction takes place on February 7 from 7 p.m. French time at Julien’s Auction. Buyers can now bid online. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to the White Feather Foundation and will be dedicated to capturing atmospheric CO2 to curb global warming.