DAO To Make Jodorowsky’s Dune Manuscript Public: Member Won $3M Bid
November 22 2021 - 6:59PM
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Following Constitution DAO’s lead, a group called Dune DAO went for
a copy of the mythological Frank Herbert and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s
Dune manuscript, wanted by many and seen by few. A plot almost as
interesting as the saga took over Christie’s auction, where the DAO
won the final bid, but with a twist. Just a few days after
ConstitutionDAO made history crowd-raising over $46M in an attempt
to buy a rare printing of the U.S. constitutions, other groups are
following their steps to purchase valuable objects in hopes to make
them accessible to the public. This time, DuneDAO aimed to bid for
a copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune manuscript at a Christie’s
auction. They hoped for a total of $500,000 in contributions and
actually hit $700,000. Although the final price was way higher,
they still managed to secure it. Christie’s had valued the
manuscript’s copy between €25,000 ($28,100) and €35,000 ($39,345),
but it sold for over $3 million. They admitted to failing at
recognizing the interest that the newest film based on Dune raised,
reported The Guardian. Related Reading | Bleeple’s “Human
One,” A Sculpture + NFT Hybrid, Sold For $28.9M At Christie’s The
group had stated before the auction: Dune DAO intends to crowdraise
the purchase, and then collectively explore options to digitally
preserve the manuscript and make it accessible to the public for
the very first time, such as through public viewings and digital
lending (to the extent permitted by law). Since distribution rights
are not granted with the purchase, DuneDAO must investigate
carefully legal ways to make this copy accessible. The group used
the same platform as ConstitutionDAO, contributions were
“handled via JuiceBox”. Each contributor got governance tokens
($SPICE) accordingly to the donated amount. The $SPICE token gives
each a vote in the future of the money, the manuscript. It does not
mean a fractionalized ownership of it. Why Dune Dao Wants The
$SPICE In a few words, Jodorowsky did compare the original
Herbert’s novel to Proust. As explained in Frank Pavich’s
documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, this was one of the most ambitious
projects in cinematic history, but it never saw light because they
lacked $5M to meet the $15M total budget. Its manuscript, however,
records the dreams behind a 15-hour movie-to-be that created a
landmark and allegedly inspired many famous movies to follow -like
Star Wars, Alien, and Blade Runner. It features art from a few of
the most renowned artists at the time, including Jean “Moebius”
Giraud’s storyboard with over 3,000 illustrations, H.R. Giger’s
concept art, Chris Foss starships’ designs. Pink Floyd was to
contribute to the soundtrack. Orson Welles was to impersonate
“Baron Harkonnen” and Salvador Dalí “The Emperor”. The list
of ambitious ideas keeps going, explaining the reason for not
meeting the budget, but also what makes fans call “the Dune Bible”
a mythical sci-fi object. What Went Down At The Auction Based on
the price previously valued by Christie’s, DuneDAO thought they
would secure the auction raising over $750k. However, as the price
went higher, a core member gave the rest of the money himself,
roughly $2.3M. Reportedly, only three years ago another copy sold
for around $42,500. Besides Christie’s claims on the unexpected 50x
raise, a Twitter user alleged another bidder had “publicly let
their top price slip”. The manuscript’s winning bid was $2,4M plus
20% christies auction fee, plus 5.5% VAT, for a total of
$3,160,062, the group stated. “I just want people to experience
it,” said the core member who contributed the winning amount. Now,
the money is meant to be raised and reimbursed so the DAO can
obtain the copy. They are “figuring out how to navigate the maze of
legal issues” before paying him back. DuneDAO has 30 days to settle
payment, which they hope will give time to debate and vote on
future plans for the physical object. They have now raised
their target to $4,200,000, taking into account additional costs
for storage, maintenance fees, digitization, and more. Related
Reading | Miramax Sues Quentin Tarantino Over “Pulp Fiction” NFTs.
Tarantino Moves Forward
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