Elon Musk poops AI photographs. This is the art market now.

Happy Thursday!

Hello, Curse and Coffee friends,

Today, we explore Beeple’s latest $100,000 pooping art shenanigans.

Hit reply and let us know what you think (we read all of your kind words).

Coffee at the ready…

The take: Beeple made art about billionaires controlling what we see. Billionaires bought it before the public got through the door.

What happened: At Art Basel Miami Beach last week, digital artist Beeple unveiled "Regular Animals"—robotic dogs fitted with hyper-realistic silicone heads of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso, roaming a pen and defecating AI-generated photographs.

Why it matters: Every $100,000 edition sold out during Wednesday's VIP preview. The people who control the algorithms bought the art critiquing algorithmic control. Then they framed the certificate that says "100% pure GMO-free, organic dogshit."

What to watch: Sotheby's and Christie's both expanded digital art departments in 2024. If "Regular Animals" resells above the edition price within six months.

The robots have a three-year lifespan. The collectors paid six figures for planned obsolescence. The decay is a feature.

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The question: why did VIPs buy it?

Art Basel's Wednesday preview is a buying floor for billionaires, family offices, and funds.

These aren't tourists.

They're the same people who sit on tech boards, back AI startups, and profit from the attention economy Beeple is satirizing.

They know they're the joke. They bought it anyway.

Why?

Because owning the critique neutralizes it. A robot Zuckerberg that poops photos is transgressive in a gallery. It's a conversation piece in a Miami penthouse.

The edge dulls the moment it enters a private collection.

Beeple understands this. His 2021 NFT sold for $69.3 million to Vignesh Sundaresan, a crypto investor who immediately displayed it in a virtual museum.

The buyer became part of the work. The transaction was the art.

He caged billionaires. Billionaires bought the cage. The satire now hangs in a foyer.

Threat neutralised.

The case for: Art that names power circulates the critique, regardless of who owns it. Millions saw robot Zuckerberg squat. That image travels.

The case against: When the target audience is also the buyer, the critique is a product. It's merch with an artist's statement.

Our read: Beeple wins either way. If collectors refuse to buy, the satire stands. If they buy, they validate the premise. He built a trap with no wrong door (except for the buyers, who paid $100K to sit inside it).

CNN coverage of "Regular Animals" — December 2025

"The free certificates dispensed by the robots humorously declare the artwork '100% pure GMO-free, organic dogshit.'"

Why it matters: Beeple handed collectors a document calling their purchase shit. They framed it. The joke requires their participation to work.

(CNN)

Sold out during VIP preview. The public never had a chance. — Art Basel Miami Beach

☕ Beeple's self-portrait dog sold first. He called himself "ballsy." Collectors apparently agreed—they bought Beeple's robot before they bought Musk's robot. (TechCrunch)

☕ OpenSea sponsored Art Basel's digital section. Zero 10 marks NFT art's entry into blue-chip fairs. The marketplace that facilitated Beeple's 2021 record is now backing institutional legitimacy. Full circle. (The Art Newspaper)

☕ One dealer called the work "decadent"—and not in a good way. "This whole project tramples on the history of digital and video art and makes it a bit." The crowd didn't care. They filmed it anyway. (ARTnews)

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