Rare “Dune” Manuscript Bought on behalf of DAO for $ 3M, But It Only Collected $ 700K

Last week, a crypto collective called ConstitutionDAO raised more than $ 40 million in ETH to buy an original copy of the U.S. constitution at auction; it failed, overseen by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.

But the idea of ​​raising $ 40 million a week on the strength of self proved appealing, and copiers appeared.

So far, the most interesting of these is DuneDAO, a similar crypto crowdfunding that raised more than $ 700,000 to purchase a copy of the script for the infamous, unfinished film adaptation by Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky of the classic science fiction novel “Dune”. This morning, when the hammer fell at Christie’s, DuneDAO actually succeeded.

The twist is that the final price was about $ 3 million: $ 2.3 million more than was raised in the crowd fund.

It was an investor named Soban “Soby” Saqib who put the cash in and offered on behalf of the group. He is a member of the “multi-sig” – the collectively controlled cryptocurrency wallet that serves as DuneDAO’s treasury – and co-founder of the project.

“I already have the money, but I want the public to come in,” Soby told CoinDesk via Twitter. What that means is that Soby personally bid and won the auction of his home in Colorado. That’s why the manuscript belongs to him, not DuneDAO, though the rest of DuneDAO is now trying to raise the money to repay him.

Jodorowsky’s “Dune” script is essentially a massive storyline for one of the most famous films ever made. The Chilean author spent the mid-70s casting and writing his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel (Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, HR Giger, and Pink Floyd were among the collaborators on board), but exceeded budget and never completed. it. A 2013 documentary, “Jodorowsky’s Dune”, chronicled the development process and offered some tempting glimpses of the script itself. David Lynch ended up directing the first film adaptation of “Dune” in 1984; a new version directed by French Canadian Denis Villeneuve was released last month.

As with ConstitutionDAO, donating money to the crowdfund only gets a certain amount of dominance tokens ($ SPICE, in this case), portioned according to what you enter. As with ConstitutionDAO’s $ PEOPLE, $ SPICE tokens do not represent fractional ownership. of the manuscript; instead, you get a say in what the group is doing with the money.

Also involved in DuneDAO are a number of members of the crypto art collective Remilia, who is responsible for an NFT project called Milady Maker. “The Constitution is something you can read anytime,” Remilia said @YOJIMBO_KING. “[Jodorowsky’s Dune] was never seen; it’s like Andrea Doria’s award. ” Only a few copies of the manuscript have ever been produced.

In a mission statement, DuneDAO said it seeks to “collectively explore options for digitally preserving the manuscript and making it accessible to the public for the first time, such as through public viewing and digital lending (to the extent permitted by law).”

Another much better-funded crypto collective called PleasrDAO tried something similar last month, with its purchase of the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” – an album that only exists offline, in a one-of-a-kind CD release.

“He who controls $ SPICE is governed by the DAO, ”wrote one member on the group’s server. “We’re glad to see what we do together.”

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