The most expensive GIF of "all time"

As a part of my internship this past summer, I engaged in several weeks' worth of research into NFTs, metaverses, and how art has transcended media in the advent of the internet. While doing so, I would find articles from as late as May 2022 which had already become outdated. Art and crypto evolve at such a fast pace nowadays, it be hard to know what the truth of the matter is at any given moment. This article, "'The Most Expensive GIF of All Time' Is Being Sold for $5,800" from The Atlantic, is a great example of this phenomenon. In 2014, the notion that a GIF could be sold was brand new and entirely preposterous- the fact that people would pay almost 6k for it was outlandish. Even, to this day, I find the notion of NFT's to be a bit far fetched, and I know I won't be getting on the Crypto train any time soon, but even I can't deny their popularity. I do not agree with Koons' notion that physical museums, which he defines as compact disks and books, are dead, I do agree with the idea that art is moving in an new direction in terms of our relationships with it. Over the summer, when the Mona Lisa got defaced by a climate change protestor, I was so excited- art, as it has existed in history, has given certain pieces, like the Mona Lisa, an almost legendary reputation, and I am of the opinion that radical reformation is due. I will always love seeing paintings in real life, that will never change, but there comes a point when a piece has nothing left to say- when that happens, when an iconic piece of media is so thoroughly absorbed and analyzed- it only makes sense to rework and adapt it to gain new insight. In this case, that insight could be found not only through digitization, but through new media phenomena- like a $6000 GIF.