Bitcoin Ordinals Inscription Marks First Individual Poem Sale by Ana Maria Caballero Sothebys

Last week, a poem by Ana Maria Caballero sold for 0.28 Bitcoin or $11,430 at Sothebys . The poem by Caballero, “Cord,” was featured in an online auction of Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions called Natively Digital.

The Natively Digital collection was designed as a deep dive into the world of the NFT-like Ordinals on Bitcoin, and contained notable early inscriptions. In addition to the inscription, the buyer of “Cord” will also receive a signed print of the poem. Michael Bouhanna, VP and Head of Digital Art at Sotheby’s, tweeted this week that “Cord” is the first-ever individual poem sold by the 280-year-old auction house, not including manuscripts and books.

The significance of the Sotheby’s auction for “Cord” was not lost on Caballero, who called it an opportunity to affirm written poetry’s inherent worth. It’s an incredible opportunity to make a statement that words and language and poetry have value on [their] own,” Caballero told Decrypt after the sale. “Not with anything else attached, not with visuals, not with sound, not with any other kind of experience. Just the language of the poem, just the text of it, is what was sold.”

“Cord” will feature in Caballero’s upcoming book Mammal. Other artists in the Natively Digital auction included FAR, XCPinata, Nullish, Rudxane, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Popoki, Shroomtoshi, Des Lucréce, and Claudia Hart. One inscription tied to the “Quantum Cats” collection sold for over $250,000.

“I was in touch with Michael Bouhanna from Sotheby’s because he wanted to put together a sale for Ordinals. I thought the curatorial theme should be about archeology in the blockchain,” FAR told Decrypt on Twitter. “So I thought having a poem would be interesting, and I invited Ana.”