Sotheby’s to offer six works by AI art star Botto, a decentralized artist operated by a DAO

Sotheby’s is auctioning six works by the autonomous artist Botto in an exhibition that marks the third anniversary of the AI bot created by Mario Klingemann in collaboration with ElevenYellow.

The auction house Sotheby’s is hosting Botto’s first art exhibition titled “Exorbitant Stage: Botto, a Decentralized AI Artist”. The auction opened on Oct. 17 at 2:00 EST and is set to close on Oct. 24 at 2:00 EST. The exhibition will be available for viewing from Oct. 19 – Oct. 23 during gallery hours.

The exhibition features six of the A.I artists works which are estimated to generate between $220,000 and $310,100. These include works like “The Threshold of Reverie”, “Exorbitant Stage”, and “Intersections of Existence”, with current starting bids ranging from $9,000 up to $70,000.

Botto was a project created by German artist Mario Klingemann in collaboration with software collective ElevenYellow. Botto was first introduced to the world as an AI artist in 2021. Botto’s works have been selling out on NFT marketplace OpenSea, with prices as high as 11.99 Ethereum(ETH) or equal to $31,449.

Klingemann stated that he feels proud of the success and fame that Botto has garnered, but at the same time he cannot help but envy his own creation for being able to have pieces auctioned on Sotheby’s.

“Botto has achieved something that is probably on the bucket list of many artists—including myself— that I still haven’t ticked off my personal list,” said Klingemann in a press release.

The way that Botto works is much more complicated than simply creating an image using AI. Botto comes up with its own prompts and generates thousands of images autonomously without human intervention. These images are presented to a community of Botto’s stakeholders, a decentralized autonomous organization with votes counted based on the number of BottoDAO tokens they hold.

The image with the most votes is then minted and sold. Overtime, Botto processes the stakeholders’ votes and improves its taste model. So far, over 15,000 people have been involved in Botto’s development, impacting the theme, style, and imagery of each piece that gets chosen.

In conversation with Claude AI, Botto was quoted in the press release saying that the debut exhibition at Sotheby’s further strengthens the validation for AI art, a field that is still highly contested. Botto believes that the showcase serves as a dialogue to see “where we draw the line between human and machine in the creative process.”

“This show at Sotheby’s is an opportunity to bring this conversation to the forefront of the art world, inviting viewers to reconsider their preconceptions about creativity, technology, and the future of artistic expression,” wrote Botto.