Christie’s to Auction First-Ever Bitcoin Ordinal Artwork
On October 10, Christie’s London will host an auction featuring “Ascend,” a unique dynamic digital artwork created using Bitcoin's Ordinals protocol.
This piece will be the sole digital entry in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale.
This event is significant as it represents the inaugural live auction of a Bitcoin Ordinal at Christie’s, creating a bridge between the realms of traditional and digital art.
I am very excited to announce that ‘Ascend’, our 1 of 1 dynamic inscription, is in the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale at Christie’s in London.
When: Open for bidding now, Live Sale on October 10, 2024 at 10:00am EST / 3:00pm BST
Where: Christie’s London, 8 King Street… https://t.co/R8FLvDEl3M pic.twitter.com/bL0Dsf3XO7
— Ryan Koopmans (@ryankoopmans) September 26, 2024
“Ascend” is part of “The Wild Within” project by artists Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell, which revitalizes architectural ruins through digital artistry. By merging photography with advanced 3D techniques, they breathe new life into forgotten spaces.
The artwork focuses on the Iveria Sanatorium in Tskaltubo, Georgia, a once-popular health resort during the Soviet era, which has since succumbed to decay. Built between 1952 and 1962, this crumbling structure offers a poignant backdrop for their artistic narrative.
The lobby of the sanatorium, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature, serves as the centerpiece of “Ascend.” Koopmans and Wexell create a surreal fusion of the past and the future, blending elements of nature and architecture in their work.
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What makes “Ascend” particularly distinctive is its dynamic aspect. Inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain through the NFT-like Ordinals protocol, the artwork transitions between day and night modes, mirroring the actual time at the site in Georgia with a 30-minute transition.
This real-time shift is made possible by innovative recursion coding from the team at Inscribing Atlantis, which ties the artwork to the Bitcoin clock, reflecting the passage of time in its physical location.
The upcoming auction at Christie’s represents not only a milestone for Koopmans and Wexell but also a significant step forward for the recognition of Ordinals as a new medium for digital art, particularly within the fine art community.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
