The proposed sale of a drawing by the 20th-century African American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) as an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) in an upcoming auction has been cancelled. 

The estate of the late neo-expressionist street artist pulled the plug on the outrageous NFT auction of Basquiat's mixed media work 'Free Comb with Pagoda' (1986), which has as part of its offering; a  permission for the would-be buyer to destroy the original artwork, making the NFT version "the only remaining form".

The auction was scheduled to take place in the NFT blockchain marketplace OpenSea with bidding starting at one ethereum (1ETH) which equates to approximately $2,700.

The seller, a firm called Daystorm who proclaims themselves to be "digital provocateurs",  has now pulled the auction listing of the drawing after Basquiat's estate challenged their right to sell the original artwork as the copyright wasn't granted to them.

"The estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat owns the copyright in the artwork referenced," the licensing agent that deals with the Basquiat archive told The Art Newspaper. "No license or rights were conveyed to the seller and the NFT has subsequently been removed from sale."

This controversy is another development in the conversation around the ethics of art ownership, preservation and licensing especially in the face of the raplidly emerging NFTs and the crypto/blockchain technology that drives it. On one hand, there is the concern over the effect of the blockchain mill on climate change, while on the other hand, there's the uncharted territory that the novelty of NFTs have opened in the art world, creating confusion about the mode of ownership of the tokens and obfuscating copyright laws.

Even the seller at the center of the Basquiat art debacle said as much in the statement they released concerning the cancellation of the NFT event. “While blockchain transactions are widely considered a trusted source of authentication and provenance, best copyright practices have yet to evolve for the digital economy,” they said.

Then there's the wanton destruction of the original physical artwork that some NFT sale advertise as part of their bargain, just like the seller of the Basquiat NFT had proposed. Earlier this year, an NFT sale saw a blockchain company burn a $95,000 Banksy artwork to “explore a new medium of artistic expression”. This new trend isn't sitting well with many art critics who argue that it runs counter to the preservation of an artist's legacy. 

But the allure of the multi-million dollars attraction of NFTs that has got many artists and non-artists rush to mint art and collectibles into non-fungible tokens to trade for unbelievable amount of money on the blockchain technology cannot be ignored and a proper, standardized framework for conduct will have to be developed soon before the next big controversy consumes the still-sore-from-the-pandemic art market.

For the uninitiated, to know all about NFTs and the NFT art business, this Aworanka article discusses the processes and technology behind it and how artists are making millions from selling their art as an NFT. This article about a Nigerian digital artist who has made $700,000 from selling his art as an NFT on the blockchain maketplace will also interest you.