American artist Beeple became the first to sell a purely digital piece of artwork at auction, fetching more than $69.3m for “Everydays – The First 5000 Days”, a stunning collage comprised of artwork he created every day for the past 13 years.
The sale also catapulted Beeple, whose name is Mike Winkelmann, to become one of the top three most valuable living artists, auction house Christie’s announced, calling it a “watershed moment in the development of digital art”.
To prove its authenticity, the work features what is known as a non-fungible token that digitally attaches the artist’s signature to it and can’t be altered, Christie’s said.
Bidding started at $100 in the online auction, which ran from February 25 until Thursday, and ultimately the piece sold for $69,346,250. Beeple’s work also brought a new class of collector to the centuries-old auction house: of the 33 active bidders, 91 percent were new to Christie’s and millennial and Generation X buyers made up the majority, Christie’s said in a press release. Most bidders were in the Americas, followed by Europe and Asia.
Beeple is a graphic designer who lives in Charleston, South Carolina in the United States. The idea behind the “Everydays” project is to create art daily, no matter how complex or simple, he said.
“These pictures are all done from start to finish every day,” he wrote on his website. “The purpose of this project is to help me get better at different things.”
Some of the early pieces in the collage are simple drawings, while others are more complex, three-dimensional renderings.
A Christie’s press release highlighted some of the milestones in the work, including the first piece in the series, which Beeple made on May 1, 2007.
“This was my very first everyday. It’s a picture of my Uncle Jim, who I nicknamed Uber Jay. I probably would have spent more time on this, had I known it would eventually be part of a piece auctioned by Christie’s!” Beeple wrote.
There is also a figure he created “very quickly, in about three minutes at 5am, right before driving my wife to the hospital to have our first child” on September 18, 2013, he said.
While digital art has been around for decades, concerns about how to verify its authenticity meant it wasn’t as valued by collectors as more traditional works.
But, Christie’s said, the “recent introduction of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology has enabled collectors and artists alike to verify the rightful owner and authenticity of digital artworks.”
“Everydays: The First 5000 Days will be delivered directly from Beeple to the buyer, accompanied by a unique NFT encrypted with the artist’s unforgeable signature and uniquely identified on the blockchain,” the auction house added.
Blockchain technology is also used in the cryptocurrency world to verify transactions, and NFTs have made headlines recently as celebrity investors flock to them.
“NFTs are really an interesting phenomenon here in the art world, because digital art has been something that the traditional art world has had a hard time selling, and frankly, has not had that much interest in selling traditionally,” Tim Schneider, art business editor at Artnet news, told Al Jazeera. “That has really gone around this whole issue of how do you make something that is infinitely replicable actually function more like paintings and sculptures, which are scarce objects that you can create an air of exclusivity around?”
“NFTs are a mechanism that basically allows you to treat digital files like traditional artworks, and I think that that makes the art world a lot more comfortable with them, at least on one level,” Schneider added.
The sale of Beeple’s artwork also made headlines after Christie’s announced it would accept the cryptocurrency Ether as payment for the artwork. The auction house hasn’t said whether the winning bidder paid in crypto, however.
Schneider said the rise of NFTs has been driven by a new class of collector.
“The people who are driving these prices are the quote-unquote ‘crypto wealthy,’ people who have holdings in bitcoin, in Ether, in cryptocurrencies, and see this particular type of digital asset as being something that they’re interested in and understand and are willing to spend money on much more so than, say, a Jeff Koons sculpture or something like that,” he explained.
Beeple has worked with a number of high-profile brands and artists over the course of his career, including SpaceX, Apple, Nike and Louis Vuitton, as well Eminem, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, among others.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
