Non-fungible tokens swept into popularity with an industry-wide change from art market mainframes to an official exportation of arts economic and cultural immunity through Silicon Valley. I suspect that any D-girl would be here instead of me if they/them could not afford to live and work in the institutions of art and had to "settle" for a front-end job in digital. Yes: in the criminal justice system sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. Moreover, in the art world, things that are considered especially heinous are kitsch.
The current state of the art is the result of the labors of a large number of people. To what extent should one trust that a work of art representing a malicious act is free of malicious intent when the representation is faithful? Perhaps it is more important to trust the people who own works of art than those who create them.
2023
Among Rauschenberg's most iconic and controversial combines, Canyon features amongst its mixed media; pieces of wood, a pillow, a mirror, and a stuffed bald eagle. The eagle appears to emerge directly from the canvas, perched on top of a cardboard box and peering down on a pillow dangling below the assemblage. A photograph of Rauschenberg's son emerges from the incongruous cacophony of objects, boldly outlined with black above a mint green patch of paint so that it stands out amidst the fragments of printed matter. Rauschenberg acquired the taxidermied eagle from fellow artist Sari Dienes, who retrieved the bird from the detritus of a recently departed neighbor that had shot the bird during his time as one of the last of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. While Rauschenberg submitted a notarized letter in 1988 that the bird was killed well before the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act went into effect, the stuffed eagle still became the source of recent governmental ire. In 2007, the estate of the former owner - Ileana Sonnabend - declared that Canyon was of zero value because it could not be sold without violating the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. However, in 2011, the United States government appraised the work at 15 million dollars, and also levied a penalty for an undervaluation at Sonnabend's heirs. In the end, the U.S. government dropped the 40 million plus dollar claim against Sonnabend's estate after the work was donated to the Museum of Modern Art.