The editors chose not to include Beeple and Pak on the free encyclopedia’s list of the most expensive art sales by living artists. The row began las

Wikipedia Editors Have Voted Not to Classify NFTs as Art, Sparking Outrage in the Crypto Community

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2022-01-15 00:00:07

The editors chose not to include Beeple and Pak on the free encyclopedia’s list of the most expensive art sales by living artists.

The row began last month, according to the crypto news outlet Cointelegraph , when editors of a page dedicated to the most expensive art sales by living artists questioned whether examples such as Christie’s $69 million sale of Beeple’s Everydays , or Pak’s $91.8 million NFT “merge,” should make the list. (Jasper Johns and Damien Hirst currently top the ranking.) Their conversation quickly took a turn toward semantics, with debaters wondering whether NFTs constituted tokens or if they represented artworks themselves.

As is common for classification disputes on the free online encyclopedia, the question was put to a vote. Five out of six editors voted not to include NFTs on the list. (As of press time, the page on Wikipedia had not yet been updated.)

“Wikipedia really can’t be in the business of deciding what counts as art or not, which is why putting NFTs, art or not, in their own list makes things a lot simpler,” wrote one editor on the discussion page , echoing the prevailing sentiment of the nay voters.