At auction, an NFT version of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela's arrest warrant raised $130,550, with funds going to a museum dedicated to the history of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle.
On August 5, 1962, South Africa's first democratically elected black president was arrested and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
The non-fungible tokens or NFT, which had a reserve price of 900,000 rand ($61,800) at the Saturday night auction in Cape Town, "sold for 1.9 million rand ($130,550) via a buyer online," according to Ahren Posthumus, CEO of the digital auctioneer Momint.
A foreigner from the United Arab Emirates was the buyer.
"All proceeds from the Mandela NFT will go to the Liliesleaf Museum to help them stay afloat," Posthumus told AFP.
Due to financial issues, Liliesleaf closed its doors in September 2021.
The same technology as crypto-currencies like Bitcoin is used to sell art as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The buyer is given a validated digital token as proof that the artwork is genuine.
"This is a truly unusual and creative way of producing cash," Nicholas Wolpe, creator of Liliesleaf Farm museum, told AFP.
The original document, dated 1961, is handwritten in both English and Afrikaans and is now yellowed, with gnarled edges and staple holes on one side.
Since roughly 2006, it has been housed at the Liliesleaf Farm historic site archives in Johannesburg, according to Wolpe.
The famous property in an upmarket northern Johannesburg suburb served as the hidden headquarters and nerve center of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC), which led the fight against white minority rule, between 1961 and 1963.
Before departing to gather finances abroad, Mandela lurked there for a while in the disguise of a field laborer, dressed in overalls.
