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Tuesday 23 November 2021 3:27 pm  |  Updated:  Tuesday 23 November 2021 4:32 pm

Artists pursue legal action after their work is sold as NFTs without approval

By: Lily Russell-Jones

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NFTs

Artists are considering legal action after their work was photographed and sold as NFTs without their prior knowledge or agreement.

Star Wars stormtrooper helmets decorated by artists including Sir Anish Kapoor and David Bailey were snapped by art curator Ben Moore and sold on the NFT platform Opensea, the FT first reported. More than 1,600 Ether (£5m) changed hands after more than 1,000 images went up for sale on Sunday.

The Art Wars page on Opensea has since been taken down after the platform was served with a copyright notice.

According to the FT 12 artists are pursuing legal action.

The incident follows an explosion of interest in the NFT market this year. In the third quarter of the year trade volumes topped $10bn amid an NFT craze.

Even payments giant Visa announced it would take the leap into the digital artworks space.

Read more: IOTA debuts genesis NFTs on newly-launched Shimmer network

Read more

Ari Emmanuel snaps up West End theatre group ATG for £4.5bn

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