Sotheby’s to Auction NFT of Snow Crash Manuscript

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  • Fine art broker Sotheby’s has disclosed an upcoming NFT auction featuring the manuscript of the 1991 novel Snow Crash, the first book to mention the metaverse
  • The auction for the manuscript, by author Neal Stephenson, will open on February 27
  • Sotheby’s believes the Snow Crash manuscript will fetch up to $60,000

Fine art broker Sotheby’s has disclosed an upcoming auction of a manuscript of the 1991 novel Snow Crash, the first book to mention the metaverse, including an NFT version. The auction will also feature items linked to the popular fiction novel such as a tachi sword owned by Hiro, a protagonist in Neal Stephenson’s novel. According to Sotheby’s, the auction will coincide with the launch of the Infocalypse NFT collection that features generative art NFTs linked to the Snow Crash novel.

Never-Before-Seen Details

Snow Crash was the first to offer a glimpse into a virtual world where inhabitants exist as avatars, over two decades before the concept of the metaverse, as we know it, came to be. The auction will feature the novel’s original manuscript containing never-before-seen details of what was added or removed in the novel before its publication in 1992.

According to a Sotheby’s executive, the novel’s author predicted today’s metaverse and by extension “our digital development,” adding that the auction will be a “one-of-a-kind sale.” Apart from the original manuscript, the auction will also include a physical tachi sword owned by a protagonist in the fictitious story, with the auction house revealing that the sword will also be available as an NFT. 

$180,000 for the Sword, $250 for the NFT

Sotheby’s also said that the auction will coincide with the launch of Infocalypse, a generative art NFT collection inspired by Snow Crash. The auction house said that they anticipate getting up to $60,000 for the manuscript, up to $180,000 for the sword and $250 for each of the generative NFTs. This is not the first Sotheby’s auction involving NFTs. Last year, it auctioned 101 Bored Apes for a whopping $24.3 Million.

Having sold one million copies in North America alone and forming the foundation of today’s metaverse three decades ago, the novel’s original manuscript and other linked items will likely fetch a premium price at the auction.

 

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