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Phillips To Accept Cryptocurrency For Artwork For First Time

Banksy Laugh Now Panel A, 2002 spray paint and emulsion on dry wall, 178.5 x 74 cm. Estimate: HK$22,000,000 – 32,000,000/ US$ 2,820,000 - 4,100,000

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, May 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Phillips has announced it will accept cryptocurrency as an optional payment method for Banksy’s Laugh Now Panel A (Estimate:HK$22,000,000 – 32,000,000/ US$ 2,820,000 – 4,100,000), to be offered in the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in collaboration with Poly Auction.

The two houses kicked off the Asia touring previews in Beijing this week with the exhibition now opening in Shanghai today, before travelling to Shenzhen, Taipei, Taichung and Hong Kong, ahead of the auctions on 7-8 June.

Banksy Laugh Now Panel A, 2002 spray paint and emulsion on dry wall, 178.5 x 74 cm. Estimate: HK$22,000,000 – 32,000,000/ US$ 2,820,000 – 4,100,000

This marks the first time a major auction house in Asia will accept Bitcoin or Ether as a payment option for a physical work of art and follows the success of Phillips’ inaugural NFT sale of Mad Dog Jones’ multi-generational NFT, REPLICATOR, which sold for over US$4 million in April. Bidding for Laugh Now Panel A will be conducted in Hong Kong Dollars, and the winning buyer will have the option to pay the hammer price as well as the buyer’s premium with cryptocurrency into the Company’s wallet with Coinbase.

Laugh Now Panel A, 2002, hails from anonymous artist and social activist Banksy’s well-known Laugh Now series.

For the past two decades, Banksy’s work has drawn both praise and controversy, and nowhere is his simultaneous appeal and notoriety more present than in the present work, Laugh Now Panel A.

It portrays a forlorn monkey, wearing a sandwich-board bearing a very specific memo: “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge”.

The live auction will be streamed to audiences worldwide on Phillips.com and the Phillips app, as well as on the Poly Auction app and WeChat Mini Program.

PR Newswire