IN PICS | Freddie Mercury NFTs go on sale for Aids charity to mark his 75th birthday

17 September 2021 - 12:37
By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
Queen frontman Freddie Mercury performs on stage in 1982. File photo.
Image: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Queen frontman Freddie Mercury performs on stage in 1982. File photo.

Four non-fungible token (NFT) artworks inspired by late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury are being auctioned off for charity to mark what would have been his 75th birthday.

Three show the singer while the fourth is a dreamlike depiction of a white grand piano with a crown on its stool, surrounded by a pond of swimming goldfish.

NFT artwork 'Colorful Soul' by artist MBSJQ  in this undated handout image.
Image: Mercury Phoenix Trust/SuperRare/Handout via Reuters NFT artwork 'Colorful Soul' by artist MBSJQ in this undated handout image.
NFT artwork 'Somebody To Love' by artist Mat Maitland in this undated handout image.
Image: Mercury Phoenix Trust/SuperRare/Handout via Reuters NFT artwork 'Somebody To Love' by artist Mat Maitland in this undated handout image.

The works by artists Blake Kathryn, Chad Knight, Mat Maitland and MBSJQ will be sold in a timed auction on digital art marketplace SuperRare over 75 hours starting on September 20, organisers said.

Proceeds will go The Mercury Phoenix Trust, an Aids charity founded by Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor and band manager Jim Beach in the singer’s memory.

NFT artwork 'Sanctuary' by artist Blake Kathryn in this undated handout image.
Image: Mercury Phoenix Trust/SuperRare/Handout via Reuters NFT artwork 'Sanctuary' by artist Blake Kathryn in this undated handout image.
NFT artwork 'Celebration Of Uniquity' by artist Chad Knight in this undated handout image.
Image: Mercury Phoenix Trust/SuperRare/Handout via Reuters NFT artwork 'Celebration Of Uniquity' by artist Chad Knight in this undated handout image.

The market for NFTs — niche crypto assets which are blockchain-based records of ownership of a digital item such as an image or a video — has been surging, though sceptics have warned of a bubble.

“Freddie Mercury left a very simple creative brief to the world on his passing: ‘You can do whatever you want with my work, just never make me boring,’” SuperRare and the Mercury Phoenix Trust said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Mercury, who studied graphic art and design, would have turned 75 on September 5. He died from Aids-related pneumonia in 1991. 

Reuters