Elon Musk, Kate Moss, Emily Ratajkowski: celebrities all put themselves in the NFT<

It's the new trend to adopt, the object to own, at least in a digital version: everywhere, celebrities are getting into NFT. An acronym as mysterious as the concept it designates: a digital work that one can acquire and own, like a painting or sculpture, but which can only be admired through an interposed screen.

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NFT stands for 'Non Fungible Token' in French. A virtual object, made unique thanks to blockchain technology, a kind of computer signature that gives it its own identity, certifies its authenticity, and makes it impossible to copy.

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Art and tech

While NFTs have begun to be exchanged in the worlds of video games and sports (like, for example, land in a virtual world, or the map , like a Panini album, of a star footballer), it is in the world of art that they brew the most money. Sculptors, photographers or visual artists have thus taken up NFTs. On Thursday March 12, a digital work by American artist Beeple, Everydays: the First 5000 Days, sold at auction for $69.3 million at Christie's.

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It was the tech giants who then took NFTs to more mainstream territory. On March 6, the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, put on sale his very first tweet (whose fascinating content boils down to "I'm creating my account"), posted fifteen years ago.

On March 23, the tweet was acquired for the modest sum of 2.9 million dollars (about 2.4 million euros, donated to charity) by the president of a blockchain company which delighted to have in possession "the equivalent of the Mona Lisa". A transaction that will not prevent anyone from continuing to consult this historic post: like the Mona Lisa, it remains visible to all. But, in the same way that the Louvre's is nothing like its countless copies, only the Tweet "certified" by an NFT will be recognized as authentic, and monetizable only by its owner. Provided neither Dorsey nor Twitter deletes it.

In mid-March, it was Elon Musk's turn to post an electro track of his composition on Twitter. Before retracting: despite offers amounting to 1.12 million dollars, the billionaire finally felt that “it didn’t seem very right to sell that”. His partner, the musician Grimes, asked fewer questions: on March 1, ten digital works signed by his (virtual) hand, representing bald cherubs floating above a terrestrial globe or a temple in ruins, flew away in 20 minutes for a total sum of 5.8 million dollars (more than 4.8 million euros), raised for the benefit of an ecological NGO.

Controlling your image

Mystery, fortune and new technologies: it didn't take less for other celebrities to get involved too. While a year ago, Paris Hilton auctioned - for charity purposes - a remarkable drawing of her cat, Munchkin, estimated at 17,000 dollars (about 14,000 euros) and has since created an Instagram account dedicated to her digital works, Lindsay Lohan sold a portrait of her last March for 50,000 dollars (about 41,000 euros).

Kate Moss, in mid-April, collaborated with the collective MITNFT (Moments in Time NFT) to create three videos representing her walking, sleeping and driving, allowing their happy owners to " own" a few moments of the top's life, which they can then show to others if they want. If, here again, part of the sum collected will go to a charity organization, the Briton specified in a press release that the NFTs were for her “a new artistic medium in which [she] could participate directly, by controlling [her ] picture".

"Creating a precedent"

Taking back control: it is for this purpose that Emily Ratajkowski has also taken hold of NFTs. This fall, the actress and model explained, in a column published on the website The Cut, how often her image was exploited: the American artist Richard Prince, for example, had just used, without her authorization, one of her posts on Instagram to enlarge it and make it a work of his New Portraits series, in 2014.

Today is a photo of her posing in front of Prince's work, which she is selling as NFTs. Buying myself back: a model for redistribution (“Redeeming myself: a model for redistribution”, Editor’s note) will be auctioned on May 14 at Christie’s. A way to reclaim what she feels belongs to her: "By using the brand new medium of NFTs, I hope to create a symbolic precedent for online property and women, which will allow them to have continued authority. on their image, and to receive fair compensation for their use and distribution,” she tweeted.

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As for Armie Hammer, he was just the subject of an NFT. Earlier this year, the actor was ostracized from Hollywood after young women accused him of sexual assault and released messages in which he told them of his rape and cannibalism fantasies. Among them, an American artist named Julia Morrison: on April 23, the latter put some of these messages up for sale in the form of NFTs. Asked by the American site The Daily Beast, Julia Morrisson intends to make her approach a way of “authenticating” the actions of Armie Hammer, who has always denied them. And also promised to donate the profits to charity.