The $10,000 price tag for a digital edition is a higher price point than the average KAWS collectible. A Phillips auction of the artist’s work in December saw most vinyl figurines selling for figures between $1,500 and $5,000. But the digital editions are still relatively affordable in the context of his larger market, which saw a new auction record of $14.7 million set last year at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong.

The commercial aspects of the collaboration between KAWS and Acute Art would seem novel in any context, pushing the possibilities for selling both virtual- and augmented-reality art. In the midst of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, with most of the art world going online, it seemed to offer a sophisticated way to interact with art while remaining socially distanced.

When Acute Art was founded in 2017, the commercial viability of virtual- and augmented-reality art had not been extensively explored. “VR is older, but it was a super-specialist thing,” said Daniel Birnbaum, Acute Art’s artistic director. “VR as something that people can use—where you can actually reach an audience—is a relatively recent thing. It was already a little bit further ahead in the architecture world, in certain kinds of entertainment, in the film world, but very few artists have done anything with VR.”