Lebanese artist first to sell artwork NFT in the MENA region

Lebanese UAE Artist Kristel Bechara has announced her first Non Fungible token sale of her art piece total $7274. She claims she is the first in the region to have sold digital artwork using NFT and was pain with Ethereum. NFTs work by assigning a unique piece of data on the public ledger blockchain to a digital item, ensuring it can not be replicated.

Lebanon-born Kristel Bechara’s first sale was a piece titled Satochi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the mysterious inventor of the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies and NFTs. It went for $1,950, while her second: Byzantine General’s Shield, sold for $5,324. She had announed in March that she would be listing her artwork as NFT.

The sales were made through the NFT auction site foundation.app, where Bechara also has a third piece listed: FOMO. 

Bechara is offering physical copies of her work to anyone who makes a digital purchase as well as the NFT marking the digital piece’s authenticity. “As someone who has been creating digital art for a number of years, I wanted to participate in this movement as soon as I learned about it,” Bechara said in a statement.

“I am delighted to see the recognition that digital art is finally receiving. For years I have had to explain to people that art produced digitally is not any way inferior to artisanal traditional art and both should be appreciated in their own way.”

NFTs will elevate the status of digital art, according to Bechara, by bringing more financial value to the pieces and allowing for the payment of royalties to the artist every time a piece changes hands.