Auction house suggests destruction of originals as historic glass plate photos sold as NFTs
Webb’s, one of New Zealand’s major auction houses has entered into the business of NFTs, but a recent sale has raised eyebrows.
Webb’s sold two historical glass plate photographs of famous and historically significant New Zealand artist Charles Goldie, paired with the sale of NFTs of the pieces. The main offering however was the sale of the NFTs, with the inclusion of the glass plate negatives in the sale serving more as a protection for the buyer.
Since the sale, the auction house has suggested to the buyers that they render the images ‘permanently digital’ by destroying the original glass plate photographs. The motivation for this recommendation is unclear, especially since it doesn't seem that the existence of the negatives was damaging to the financial value of the NFTs.
Head of Art at Webb’s, Charles Ninow spoke on the auction house’s recommendation, stating, “We are taking something made on a specific day and specific time and is really important to New Zealand’s history and in a way we are making it immortal.”
Both NFTs and their corresponding glass plate negatives sold for significantly more than their $8,000 estimated sale price, which speaks to the rapidly growing enthusiasm behind the creation and sale of NFTs. The photograph of Goldie at his easel sold for $51,250 and the wide-angle still of him in his studio sold for $76,250.
Whether or not the buyers choose to destroy the original glass plate negatives is ultimately up to them, but the recommendation that buyers should destroy physical originals after purchasing NFTs of those originals could lead to a trend of irreversible damage, calling into question the true cost of the sale of NFTs.
