Christie’s sells it’s first Bitcoin Ordinal made by Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell

A digital artwork titled “Ascend,” written on Bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol, sold for $57,450 on Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day, beating the low estimate of $39,000.

Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell’s Bitcoin Ordinal “Ascend” sold for £44,100, or $57,450, at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day sale on October 10. The piece was initially estimated to retail for £30,000 or $39,222.

This is the first time a Bitcoin Ordinal has appeared in a live auction at Christie’s, one of the world’s oldest and most established auction houses, founded in 1776.

The artwork captures the beauty of the revitalized Iveria Sanatorium in Tskaltubo, Georgia. Built between 1952 and 1962, the structure fell into ruin and has since been revived with digital work by Koopmans and Wexell.

“Ascend” is part of Koopman and Wexell’s “The Wild Within” project, which combines visual photography with 3D technology to bring abandoned structures back to life.

Sebastian Sanchez, Director of Digital Art Sales at Christie’s, talked about how Bitcoin Ordinals differ from NFTs on Ethereum and presented a new challenge for artists trying to create in this space.

“Ordinal numbers present different constraints, such as requiring a much smaller file size than is possible on Ethereum, so we don’t usually see a lot of high-quality artwork. But artists are working with these constraints and pushing the boundaries of what is possible,” Sanchez said in an email to crypto.news.

He explained that ordinals add an extra layer of protection not found in external databases. Inactive external servers run the risk of permanent deletion of image files stored on them. Ordinals, on the other hand, add images and videos to Satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, without using external links.

Although there is a downside, Sanchez believes Ordinals have a “steeper learning curve” in terms of technical features compared to NFTs and are therefore harder to introduce to the mainstream art community.

He also noted that more and more artists are experimenting with digital and physical artworks, merging the two worlds.

“We have seen artists create digitally native works where the owner has the right to receive a signed print from an artist, as well as physical works with Certificates of Authenticity on the blockchain,” he said.

Both Wexall and Koopmans are no strangers to the world of traditional fine art and photography.

In September 2024, at the first International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Durres, Albania, artworks from the acclaimed digital art series called “The Wild Within” were installed in the former Royal Villa of Durres.

GM!

The first International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Durres, Albania, displays artworks from The Wild Within throughout the former Royal Villa of Durres, in partnership with the Swedish Embassy and Albanian government institutions. pic.twitter.com/G9Jth4GoCU

— Ryan Koopmans (@ryankoopmans) September 12, 2024

Another of his works, ‘I Thought of You’, was created based on an abandoned villa in Italy. The work was exhibited at the Enter Art Fair in Copenhagen, Denmark, from August 29 to September 1.