Sotheby’s to auction off NFTs owned by bankrupt Three Arrows Capital

Image: Sotheby’s, Larva Labs

Leading auction house Sotheby’s said it will hold sales of the so-called “Grails” art collection, which consists of non-fungible token (NFT) artwork that belongs to the bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and its NFT-purchasing fund Starry Night Capital.

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Fast facts

• The collection will be released in chapters across various sales formats — from private sales to auctions — in multiple locations globally, Sotheby’s said in an announcement on Wednesday. 
• “Grails” collection includes pieces from prominent NFT artists and projects such as Larva Labs’ Zombie CryptoPunk and Dmitri Cherniak’s The Golden Goose.
• “This expansive collection marks an important moment in the rise of generative art on the blockchain in 2021, and was guided by the 3AC ethos of acquiring some of the highest quality and rarest works available on the market,” Sotheby’s head of digital art and NFTs Michael Bouhanna said in the announcement. 
• Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital was a prominent hedge fund for the cryptocurrency sector that managed as much as US$10 billion in March last year. 
• In July 2022, Three Arrows Capital filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy, which protects assets of insolvent foreign debtors from U.S. creditors. 
• Three Arrows Capital owes over US$3 billion to its creditors, according to court documents.
• In February, Three Arrows Capital’s U.S.-based liquidator Teneo said that it plans to sell NFTs owned by the company with an estimated value of US$22 million at the time of the bankruptcy filing.

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