Nelson Mandela's Paintings Of Prison Are Being Sold As NFTs For $3,500

thegamer.com:

Nelson Mandela, the civil rights activist and former president of South Africa who passed away in 2013, is having his artwork sold as NFTs. No, that is not a sentence I thought I would write today.

The paintings, which depict the prison cell he spent the majority of his 27-year prison sentence in, have been widely available to the public for some time now. However, collectors will be able to spend up to $3,500 to say they own them in the blockchain. There's not actually a limit on how many can be sold either, with the collection consisting of how many are shifted in a six-hour window.

Related: If Only There Was Some Way For Game Companies To Know NFTs Were Bad Before The Backlash

As reported by The Guardian, auction company Bonhams is behind the NFT sale. They, admittedly, have the support of Mandela's daughter, but their reasoning does not explain why they have opted for NFTs.

Giles Peppiatt, the director of modern and contemporary African art for the company, explained that the collection is for "new audiences that probably don’t go to art galleries and museums". (Side note: These pieces were already available to view online.)

"These are people who live a lot of their life through their phones, through the internet, and who have large amounts of money at their disposal – and they are collectors", Peppiatt further explained. "They are becoming a more and more important part of the art market."

It's not exactly clear what about them being NFTs will make it unique. Of course, younger people are probably less likely to go to a museum. But these pieces are already available to appreciate without the blockchain saying you have ownership.

Nelson Mandela isn't the only deceased celebrity to have their likeness used to sell