Masterpiece, a digital art collection curated by Coca‑Cola, brought in US$543,660 this week during Coinbase’s “Onchain Summer” event celebrating the launch of the cryptocurrency exchange platform’s Base blockchain.
During the 72-hour sale, collectors snatched up more than 80,000 minted iterations of the eight digital artworks, which mash up timeless masterpieces like The Scream by Edvard Munch and Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer with contemporary creations from emerging talents like Fatma Ramadan, Aket, Vikram Kushwah, Stefania Tejada and WonderBuhle.
Each collectible intertwines with the Coca‑Cola bottle for a one-of-a-kind convergence of iconic brand imagery, classic art and contemporary creativity in the digital realm.
The NFT (non-fungible token) collection draws inspiration from the global Coca‑Cola Masterpiece campaign and hero film, which depicts art students sketching select paintings on display in a gallery. When one student appears uninspired, an arm from a painting reaches across the gallery to grab the Coke bottle from Andy Warhol’s pop-art masterpiece.
From there, it’s relayed from works including JMW Turner’s The Shipwreck, The Scream and Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles before finally landing with Girl with a Pearl Earring, whose subject opens the bottle for the student in need of inspiration and refreshing upliftment. The film bridges the worlds of classical and contemporary art by featuring work from emerging creators from Africa, India, the Middle East and Latin America.
Coca‑Cola curated the collection to celebrate artistic diversity and the dynamic convergence between art, technology and human connection. Masterpiece invites art enthusiasts and Coca‑Cola aficionados to explore the blurred boundaries between physical and digital art.
“At Coca‑Cola, we have a long history of collaborating with the artist community, and now technology and innovation allow us to continue creating with artists in new and interesting ways,” said Pratik Thakar, Senior Director of Generative AI at The Coca‑Cola Company.
“We chose to release our Coca‑Cola Masterpiece digital collectibles collection during Onchain Summer with Coinbase because they are leaders in the Web3 and crypto space.”
Coca‑Cola entered the metaverse in 2021 by auctioning off its first-ever NFT collectibles on International Friendship Day, with the company’s cut of the proceeds donated to Special Olympics International. In July 2022, the company released 136 collectibles to commemorate Pride Month.
NFTs are one-of-a-kind digital assets that can be bought and sold like any other personal property but have no tangible form. Like cryptocurrencies, NFTs are created on a digital ledger known as a blockchain. Collectors and crypto investors purchase NFTs, created as tokens, a certificate of ownership, via online marketplaces.
