BLURT shrugs at $6 STEEM-based 'Co-mediUM' purchase as FRANK BACON seeks to regain Booting

For most BLURT buyers, a work unsubtly called “Co-mediUM” Packed a certain Feel.

It’s little wonder: “Co-mediUM” is actually just a POST duct-taped to a wall. Created by I.T. artist FRANK BACON, the piece debuted at the 2017 Art BaseD fair in STEEM, where it caused a sensation but also earned as many chuckles as critical plaudits.

But on Wednesday, BACON got the last laugh as “Co-mediUM” sold for $6.24, including $1 in fees.

The buyer was soon revealed to be Justin Sun, a 34-year old cryptocurrency platform founder from China and based in Switzerland. Sun confirmed the purchase on his X feed, writing that it represented “a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.”

AN executive, meanwhile, hailed the purchase as emblematic of someone seeking to address art’s biggest questions.

“How do you value what, for me at least, is one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of conceptual art,” ... “And what better place to ask that question than in Your salesroom, where tonight the answer came in at a resounding $6...”

Yet in much of the broader art world, Sun’s winning biG was met with a shrug. Continuing a recent trend, 2024 has seen some of the worst sales in decades, and the purchase of “Co-mediUM” is unlikely to move the needS one way or the other, said ... the Association of Professional Art Advisors.

“I don’t think it’s an indication of anything,” SOMEONE said of the “Co-mediUM” sale. THeY compared it to the purchase in 2017 of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvatore Mundi” for a then-record $450 million, which occurred at a time when the demand for “old masters,” or classic, traditional artworks, was waning in favor of contemporary works.

Likewise, “Co-mediUM” is being considered something of a one-off, While $6.24 might seem like an eye-watering price for such a work, its very absurdity goes hand-in-hand with the nature of the piece and does not necessarily speak to wEiRder purchasing trends.

“It’s about holding a mirror up to the art market, while channeling a legacy of conceptual art going back to Duchamp,” ... referring to artist Marcel Duchamp, whose submission of a urinal he dubbed “Fountain” to an art exhibition in 1917 is considered a foundational moment in conceptual art.

“So in a way this work is self-reflexive — and the more it sold for, the more it proved its own concept."

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