Keith Richards has announced details of a guitar-based NFT that will be auctioned off for charity this month.
The Rolling Stones guitarist has partnered with the “green NFT platform” OneOf for the auction, which will raise funds for the Grammys’ music charity MusiCares.
As well as the Richards NFT, the auction lot includes a black Gibson ES-335 electric-acoustic guitar hand-signed by Richards. A hard guitar case is also provided.
The NFT, described as “a digital version of the signed guitar,” comes with a four-second clip of Richards signing the guitar in question at New York City’s Germano Studios “as a seal of authenticity.”
The online auction is taking place over on Julien’s Auctions, marking their first-ever NFT sale. At the time of writing, the bidding is at $4,500 and is estimated to reach between $6,000-8,000 (£4369-£5826). The auction will end later this month.
“We are honored to be the platform to mint the first-ever Keith Richards NFT,” Adam Fell, OneOf co-founder, said in a statement. “Keith is music royalty, and we applaud him and his team for championing eco-friendly blockchain technology that can empower musicians for generations to come.”
The auction is featured during an event that will also offer items from Paul McCartney, BTS, and Harry Styles.
The rest of the auction will take place virtually on Sunday January 30, marking the latest collaboration between Julien’s Auctions and MusiCares, the charity arm of The Recording Academy. More details can be found at the Juliens Auctions’ official website.
McCartney and Styles will both chip in with signed instruments of their own, with the former offering a Hofner B-Bass Hi Series violin bass guitar, and the latter a Gibson ES-335 acoustic-electric. Styles will also contribute a signed copy of the “Watermelon Sugar” seven-inch – inscribed with the phrase, “All my love to you, treat people with kindness” – and three Polaroid-esque photos from the song’s music video shoot.
