Sotheby’s, one of the world’s largest fine art brokers, announced on Wednesday, April 19th, that is planning to auction off a collection of blue-chip NFTs seized from the bankrupt cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. The so-called “Grails” collection is described by the company as “extraordinary” and the sale will begin on May 19th.

3AC’s Prized NFT Collection to Go on Sale on May 19th

This Wednesday, Sotheby’s, one of the largest art brokers in the world, announced that it will soon be putting its “Grails” NFT collection on auction. The collection is comprised of non-fungible tokens seized after 3AC, founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, went bankrupt and is described as “extraordinary” and containing “some of the most significant digital artworks ever assembled”.

The auction is set to begin on May 19th during the Marquee Sale Week at Sotheby’s New York but will take place in multiple phases, across multiple locations throughout the year. “Grails” is comprised of multiple well-known NFTs from various collections. For the most part, it has been acquired by 3AC at the height of the crypto bull market.

Uncover some of the rarest and most important works from the most sought-after creators in the Digital Art markets such as Dmitri Cherniak’s Ringers #879 (also called “The Golden Goose”), Snowfro’s full spectrum Chromie Squiggle #1780, Tyler Hobbs’ small-scale Fidenza #725, Larva Labs’ Zombie CryptoPunk #6649 and Autoglyphs. As true grails, these works – and the Collection as a whole – represent some of the very best of the Contemporary Digital Art and Generative era.

In February, 3AC’s liquidator Teneo posted a notice informing on its intent to sell the NFTs it had acquired from the bankrupt company. Three Arrows Capital was a Singapore-based hedge fund that collapsed in July 2022 after suffering significant damage in the wake of the LUNA crash that occurred in May.

NFTs Entering the World of Fine Art

While NFTs have proven their staggering popularity as digital collectibles, their status as art pieces has been a hotly debated subject. Despite their temporary waning in the wake of the “crypto winter” of 2022, non-fungible tokens are now closer to being seen as legitimate art than ever before.

In February of 2023, an NFT influencer known as Cozomo de Medici, a play on the name of the famous Renaissance Maecenas, revealed he is donating a 22-piece collection to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). This year also saw non-fungible tokens find a place in the legendary Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York with the exhibition of Refik Anadol’s “Unsupervised” collection.

Last November also saw the launch of the “Punks Legacy Project” created by Yuga Labs and recently continued by Yuga and Larva Labs together with the donation of  Autoglyph #25 and Cryptopunk #110 to Paris’ Centre Pompidou. NFTs have also, in recent months, seen a resurgence in commercial popularity—a resurgence largely driven by the emergence of Bitcoin Ordinals and the proliferation of aggregator marketplaces.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist

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