The Record-Breaking Auctions of 2021

This past year, Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs were not only at the center of ongoing discussions about the future of a more decentralized internet and the resurgence of pyramid schemes and scams in digital spaces, they were also rumored to completely disrupt the art market. While the top 10 highest-selling paintings at art auctions in 2021 did include the now-famous Everydays: The First 5000 Days by digital artist Mike "Beeple" Winkelmann sold to the tune of $69 million, it was still overshadowed by Pablo Picasso's Femme assise près d'une fenêtre from 1932, which was bought for $103.4 million in May 2021. As our chart shows, the highest auction prices in other categories don't even come close to the sale of Picasso's classic according to data from Knight Frank.

Coming in second is the lot containing the final text of the United States Constitution, which sold for $43.2 million and interestingly also involved a type of entity associated with decentralized web or web3 called a DAO. This acronym stands for decentralized autonomous organization and can be compared to a publicly-traded company without a C-suite or managerial staff steering the corporation according to its assumed shareholder interests; its coffers are filled by its members buying governance tokens or associated coins, and in turn these members get voting privileges on every decision according to their "share" in the organization.

Due to all transactions taking place on the blockchain, this mode of incorporation can be seen as more transparent than legacy companies, though its model still favors majority stakeholders, is hard to scale and not well-adapted to processes like bidding on auction items: Noticeably, many of the members of the organization called ConstitutionDAO didn't get back their investments, since transaction costs, also called gas fees, ate up any leftover value of the, in market terms, worthless $PEOPLE token connected to the effort.

Other noticeable items on the list of the highest auction prices per category in 2021 include the revolver used to kill wild west outlaw Billy the Kid in 1881, which sold for $6 million and set a world record for firearms auctions, a 1995 McLaren F1 sports car changing hands for $20.5 million and the 1933 Double Eagle coin, the last gold coin created by the United States Mint to be legally owned by a private individual, being acquired for $18.9 million.