Da Vinci's Last Supper Also Altered... Only NFT Truly Realizes the Original

Top Domestic NFT Seller Hraengki Bae
"One Work Divided into 1,500 Pieces Sold Out for 8.8 Billion KRW"

Franky Bae sold 'hoo202002260208' for 5.05 million dollars (approximately 5.9 billion KRW) through a side event (auction) at the 'Bitcoin 2021 Conference' held in Miami, USA, last June.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] "The true originality of a work can only be guaranteed in the digital world where Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are implemented."

This is the statement of media artist Hoorangki Bae (Bae Hanseong, 64), who has recently gained fame in the NFT art market. For him, the concept of an original in the analog world is close to fiction. This is because physical changes gradually occur from the moment the work is completed.

"Leonardo da Vinci painted 'The Last Supper' 520 years ago. Since then, the work has been greatly damaged and altered over time. It was overpainted by others and then partially stripped off during restoration work. Can we really call the 'Last Supper' we see today the original? For famous works, many museums calculate the degree of damage in reverse and create digital originals. When a work is damaged, they also correct it by using the damaged parts as samples to apply color. In fact, even before NFTs appeared, the original already existed digitally."

Hullyngki Bae, artist.

Hoorangki Bae's artistic style is abstract expressionism. He majored in Western painting in college and experimented with various genres such as drawing, watercolor, oil painting, and installation art. Later, he became a media artist, attracted by the infinite possibilities of expression through digital technology. Thanks to this, he was able to quickly adapt to NFTs, the biggest topic in the art market this year.

Hoorangki Bae claims that he holds the highest sales record for NFT works among domestic artists. In October, he sold out 1,500 pieces of his work ‘hoo150803_summer’ (2015) on the NFT marketplace ARTiX, at $5,000 per piece, totaling $7.5 million (approximately 8.8 billion KRW). The highest NFT artwork sale price among Korean artists known through the media so far is Mari Kim's ‘Missing & Found’ (2021), which was sold at auction in March for 288 Ethereum (about 600 million KRW). Hoorangki Bae also said that he sold an NFT artwork for $5.05 million (about 5.9 billion KRW) through the ‘NFT BLUE’ auction, a side event of the ‘Bitcoin 2021 Conference’ held in Miami, USA, in June. If his claims are correct, he sold about 15 billion KRW worth of works through NFTs this year alone.

‘hoo150803_summer’ (2015) by artist Hulaengki Bae, sold for $7.5 million (approximately 8.8 billion KRW) last October on the NFT marketplace ARTiX.

He also said that excluding NFTs, he is the one who sold the highest-priced artwork among living domestic artists. The highest price for a living Korean artist known in the art market is ‘East Wind’ (1984) by modern art master Lee Ufan, which was sold at a Seoul Auction in August.

"In 2019, I listed five works on the American e-commerce platform eBay for $10 million each. A collector from the UK contacted me and offered to buy all for $50 million (about 59 billion KRW). The collector sent someone and even signed a sales contract. This is the highest price ever for a living Korean artist. Because the price was so high, some remaining payments are still in progress. In September 2019, at the suggestion of Lotte Department Store, replicas of the works were exhibited at Bella Muse, an art store inside AvenueL Jamsil branch. In November of that year, one piece was sold for 2 billion KRW at a premium spot auction hosted by Bella Muse."

Hoorangki Bae criticized the closed culture of the domestic art market, including galleries, saying that his sales records are not properly recognized. This is also why he does not submit works to galleries but uses eBay or NFT platforms. Hoorangki Bae said, "I witnessed my father, who was a painter, going through all kinds of hardships while dealing with galleries since I was young," and emphasized, "It is not desirable for artists to distribute their works exclusively through galleries." He added, "NFTs are positive in terms of bringing innovation and industrialization to the distribution of artworks." His father was the watercolor master the late Bae Dongsin (1920?2008).

Hoorangki Bae plans to engage in various social activities through his works in the future. He currently serves as an ambassador for the international relief organization World Vision. Last year, he also unveiled a tribute painting at the 50th anniversary event of Jeon Tae-il. Hoorangki Bae said, "I hope my works will be widely used for socially meaningful causes," and added, "In March next year, I plan to present a collaborative work at a fashion show held at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.