Keith Haring’s vibrant expressions of cartoonishly simple humanity in motion have become ubiquitous with the framings of the late 80s art world. His truly individual style is gently suffused with New York queer cultural themes, most especially the AIDS epidemic. Now, for the first time, we’ll see the icon’s works through a lens as pervasive in the era that immediately followed Haring’s death—Christie’s is premiering Haring’s computer drawings with the new NFT auction Pixel Pioneer.

Collecting five separate untitled pieces, the Pixel Pioneer auction is the first time these works have been publicly displayed. Minted on the Ethereum blockchain, these works will be up for auction from September 12th to 20th and are expected to go for approximately $200,000 to $500,000 each. But with early digital works by Andy Warhol going for a collective $3.3 million in 2021, it can be expected that these works may pull in similar numbers, despite the value and interest of NFTs waning.

Keith Haring first came to experiment in computer art thanks to the infamous Timothy Leary, the divisive psychologist and writer who delved the world of psychedelics, pushed back against societal strictures, and coined the phrase “turn on, tune in, drop out.” At the time, Leary was becoming increasingly enthralled with the digital sector, beginning to develop a video game adaptation of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, wanting Haring to create the visuals. While the project (tragically) never moved forward, it gave Haring the chance to create a handful of works on a Commodore Amiga personal computer.

The title of the auction seems a bit of a misnomer given that these works have never seen the light of day to make an impression, and when one considers Haring exhibited a healthy fear for the incoming technology impacting traditional artists. But the work does ring with the energy and life that the artist’s works are always so full of, with Untitled #1 even seeming to be somewhat reflective of his venture into the medium.

With a rocky state continuing for the NFT world, a debut of unseen works by one of art history’s most beloved figures seems like a solid measure to inject life back into the movement. But Pixel Pioneer does have a slight tone to it that seems desperate to tie the legacy of Keith Haring to the culture of Web3.

Few can deny the headline-grabbing capability of besmirching the surface of beloved artworks—just look at the tactics of Just Stop Oil and its adjacent groups. Even despite the fact that these individuals mostly only smeared substances on protective glass, it was met with attention and outcry globally. And while those actions, idealistic but misguided as they were, often caused no lasting harm, there are those so absorbed in their perceived importance that they’ll go to the lengths of plastering over a beloved public art space to make headlines. Enter: Roberto Palacio.

Roberto Palacio is, for all intents and purposes, an unknown quantity in the New York art scene; in the spheres of gallery work, street art, and digital work, he seems to have little reach. This may be precisely the reasoning behind his recent actions. 57 Great Jones Street is the former home and studio of legend Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as a historical property and popular spot for graffiti homages to the late artist. But as of July 10th, Palacio began a spree of whitewashing every work on the building’s edifice, even going so far as to paint over the commemorative plaque.

Making no attempt to hide himself as the perpetrator, Palacio has documented and taken credit for the actions in meandering and cryptic statements on his Instagram. He claims to be doing performance art as the Marvel character aka Jericho Drumm Brother Voodoo, as well as stating that he had meetings with the building’s owners for an exhibition of his work (a building which is officially being rented by Angelina Jolie, running her fashion label Atelier Jolie from it while aiming to maintain its creative legacy and homages (something the prior tenants, members-only restaurant Bohemian, had failed to do last year in their own whitewashing of the building)).

While street art is ephemeral by nature and lives in the constant possibility of erasure by urban development and private or public remodelling, it is unexpected to see a purported part of the arts community take to wiping away the works of others to increase buzz around him. Robert Palacio claims his actions echo the respectfully iconoclastic Rauschenberg piece Erased de Kooning Drawing, but it is hard to see it as anything more than sensationalizing vandalism.