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1. Takashi Murakami Is Auctioning a Collection of Smiley-Flower NFTs

Takashi Murakami is the latest artist to embrace the NFT art hype by releasing a set of 24-by-24-pixel works based on his signature smiley face flowers. “I’m groping in the dark, so I’m sure I will make many mistakes, but please bear with me,” the Japanese artist said. The NFTs are up for sale on OpenSea, with each flower featuring a different facial expression, much like emojis.

2. Damien Hirst to Debut 10,000 Works on Paper on ‘Environmentally Friendly’ NFT Platform

While NFTs have been attracting unprecedented attention, there’s also been criticism that they consume too much energy. A new digital marketplace called Palm aims to use NFTs in a more environmentally friendly way. To help launch the platform, Palm has recruited artist Damien Hirst to debut his first NFT work on their platform. His work for Palm will be The Currency Project, which is comprised of 10,000 oil paintings on paper, each of which is accompanied by its NFT/ The series explores the conflation of art and wealth, but the pricing model for The Currency Project has not yet been revealed.

3. NFT version of Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci’s famous artwork to be auctioned this weekend

Art historian Ben Lewis has created an NFT of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous and auction sale record beating Salvator Mundi. The auction will take place this weekend on the OpenSea platform. Whatever Lewis makes from the sale will be donated to the Louisiana-based Hendry family, who sold the original da Vinci of Salvator Mundi at auction in 2005 for a mere $1,175 (it was later auctioned off for $450,312,500.

4. NFT art marketplace SuperRare closes $9 million Series A

The NFT ecosystem is making all the headlines, and the startups that are in the NFT space are feeling their luck turn for the best with investors more keen than ever to invest in the space. SuperRare, an NFT art platform, is one of such startups. The $9 million Series A round was led by Velvet Sea Ventures and 1confirmation. Other investors participating in the round include Collaborative Fund, Shrug Capital, Third Kind, SamsungNext, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, Mark Cuban, Marc Benioff, Naval Ravikant and Chamath Palihapitiya, among others.

5. The Louvre’s Entire Art Collection Is Now Accessible Online for Free

Travelling to Paris may be off the cards for now, but there’s some good news: for the first time in its history, the Louvre has made its entire collection available to view online. In a bid to give people access to the Louvre’s iconic collection, the world’s most visited museum has put over 480,000 items on its website for people to view from the comforts of their homes.