Rhino horn NFT to go under hammer in South Africa
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E-mail Xinhua, November 11, 2021
CAPE TOWN, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- An auction featuring sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including a historic item inaccessible to the public and a rhino horn, will take place Thursday in Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa.
NFTs are a kind of digital asset using blockchain to record the ownership of items such images, videos and other collectibles.
According to Momint, a South African online NFT marketplace that will host the auction, one of the items to be auctioned is a "pen gun" once used by South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Oliver Tambo. It was given to him when he was president of African National Congress (ANC) to protect himself from potential assassins.
The "Pen Gun" is not accessible to viewings by the public and the owner will be given the exclusive right to inspect it once a year at Liliesleaf Farm Museum, which served as the secret headquarters and nerve center of the ANC, South African Communist Party (SACP), ANC's military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe and anti-apartheid political coalition Congress Alliance.
Momint also said that the first NFT of a rhinoceros horn will be auctioned for conservation, and the net proceeds from the auction will be used to preserve rhinos.
South Africa saw a marked decline in rhino poaching in 2020, with the killing of rhinos declining by 33 percent to 394 from 594 in 2019, official figures showed.
While the country has managed to curb the escalation of rhino losses and has seen a year-on-year reduction in the number of rhinos poached, one cannot become complacent as the escalating demand in consumer countries ensures a lucrative black market trade, hence relentless pressure on all resources to combat this organized crime, said the national environment department in February.
According to South African media Sunday Times, it will also join the auction by selling a photo believed to have been taken by its photographer in 1960s in District Six, Cape Town and its NFT. Residents of this neighborhood were forcibly removed in 1970s by the apartheid government.
Other pieces to be auctioned included NFTs of artworks, dinner with South African entrepreneur Rob Hersov, football with the signature of South African retired footballer Lucas Radebe. Enditem
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