(Bloomberg) -- Pharrell Williams, an American singer and fashion director, joined forces with one of the biggest K-pop stars to auction dozens of personal items of the South Korean celebrity, raising around $1.1 million on Williams’ online marketplace.
The sale, run by Williams’ digital auction house Joopiter, featured items owned by G-Dragon, who shot to fame in the 2010s as leader of the South Korean boy band BigBang. Officially Kwon Ji-yong, the singer-songwriter is also an ambassador for Chanel, has his own fashion line and is an avid art collector. Williams, a global tastemaker and the creative director of Louis Vuitton mens, launched Joopiter in 2022, seeking to appeal to new and young collectors with a mix of art, fashion and culture.
The latest collaboration auctioned more than 45 collectibles from G-Dragon, including a multicolor fox fur coat the Korean rapper wore during his tour with BigBang in 2015 that sold for $125,000. Other items were a gold microphone ($16,250), a Chanel X Pharrell fanny pack customized by G-Dragon ($18,750) and a director’s chair ($51,250). The bidding, which ended Tuesday, drew high global participation from dozens of cities with about 42% of bidders from South Korea, according to Joopiter.
“The idea behind Joopiter is to embrace the energy that is released when objects change hands, and to respect the value that’s been created around these objects,” Williams said in a statement.
Joopiter has partnered with a slew of other pop stars and luxury brands and is currently offering a stay in one of Tokyo’s most exclusive new properties, built on a cliff overlooking Mount Fuji and featuring artwork by KAWS. As part of efforts to reach Chinese buyers, Joopiter collaborated with Hong Kong-born K-pop star Jackson Wang and opened a WeChat channel to sell merchandise.
With a team of experts who previously worked at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, Joopiter is looking to sell collectibles that are connected to contemporary culture and could attract a younger buyer base, Caitlin Donovan, head of global sales at Joopiter, said in an interview. The site has been hosting exhibitions in multiple cities and is hoping to enter more markets, such as in the Middle East, she added.
“The idea with Joopiter is that we democratize the way people look at auctions,” Donovan said at Daelim Museum in Seoul, which hosted the exhibition of G-Dragon’s collectibles and art pieces. “Digital auctions really break down the barrier of entry across a lot of different channels.”
Joopiter’s online auction and an accompanying exhibit at Seoul’s Daelim Museum was timed for the international art fair, Frieze Seoul, that ended Saturday. Iconic galleries such as Gagosian and Gladstone presented new works by US-based Derrick Adams and Anicka Yi.
(Updates with executive’s comment in seventh paragraph.)
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