Emily Ratajkowski Sold an NFT of Herself for $175,000

In the hope of reclaiming a part of her image, influencer and model Emily Ratajkowski auctioned off an NFT of herself at Christie’s this Friday, which swiftly sold for $175,000 after fees. Titled Buying Myself Back: A Model for Redistribution, the image features Ratajkowski standing with her arms crossed in front of a highly contentious artwork by Richard Prince, who has long been using appropriation as commentary to make his name since the 1980s. The piece is a screenshot taken directly from Ratajkowski’s popular Instagram account, where she had posted an image of herself from a Sports Illustrated photoshoot. Below the photograph reads comments from followers, as well as from Prince.

Those aware of the ongoing saga between Prince and Ratajkowski know that the chosen NFT is anything but random. It all began in 2014 when she came across the image of herself hanging on the walls of Gagosian’s Madison Avenue outpost as a part of Prince’s “New Portrait” series, which featured an array of enlarged and reprinted Instagram posts. While it garnered mixed reviews in the art world, with Jerry Saltz calling it “genius trolling,” others, like Ratajkowski, found the works less than amusing.

The issue helped prompt the model to write a now viral essay in The Cut, in which she recalls the many times in her career in which her image has been redistributed without her knowledge, or will, despite the fact that as a model, her image is much of her livelihood.

Now, Ratajkowski is hopping on the NFT bandwagon to symbolically reclaim ownership over one of the many images that she feels has escaped her grasp. “NFTs carry the potential to allow women ongoing control over their image and the ability to receive rightful compensation for its usage and distribution,” the model wrote on her Instagram last month. In that sense, the NFT, which like other works of the same medium is less about an artistic subject and more about the concept of ownership, has given Ratajkowski the opportunity to buy back a piece of herself.

After digital artist Beeple amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune for one of his virtual works on an NFT platform in March, artists and celebrities have been quick to embrace the new art market trend. The model is one of many public figures who is using the medium—others include stars such as Snoop Dogg, Grimes, and Kate Moss. But for Ratajkowski, the effort is imbued with larger meaning:  “I hope to symbolically set a precedent for women and ownership online, one that allows for women to have ongoing authority over their image and to receive rightful compensation for its usage and distribution,” Ratajkowski wrote on Twitter.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest