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Humanoid robot Sophia did not sell for almost $700,000. On March 25, 2021, an NFT artwork created in collaboration with Sophia and Italian artist Andrea Bonaceto sold for $688,888. The lot contained a 12-second MP4 video and a physical artwork; Sophia, the robot, was not part of the sale.
What sold at auction
The work was titled Sophia Instantiation. Its digital component was a 12-second MP4 video issued as a non-fungible token (NFT). The video shows Bonaceto’s portrait evolving into Sophia’s digital painting, according to contemporaneous reports.
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The NFT lot also included a physical piece: Sophia painted on a printout of her self-portrait. That physical artwork accompanied the tokenized video as part of the same one-off auction lot.
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Who created “Sophia Instantiation”?
The project combined Sophia’s humanoid-robot system with Bonaceto’s artistic work. Reports describe an iterative visual exchange between Bonaceto’s portrait and Sophia’s resulting digital painting. This description identifies the collaboration; it does not establish that Sophia acted as an independent human artist or that the sale demonstrated machine sentience.
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- Battery type: alkaline AAA batteries: 2 batteries, please purchase separately for the sold separately.
- (C) T-ARTS / syn Sophia / TV Tokyo / PP2 Production Committee
- Age: 6 years and older
How the NFT relates to the video
An NFT is a blockchain token associated with a digital item and its ownership record. In this case, the token represented the 12-second MP4 artwork. The buyer acquired the tokenized digital work together with the accompanying physical artwork specified in the lot—not the robot hardware itself.
| Item | What the auction included |
|---|---|
| Digital work | “Sophia Instantiation,” a 12-second MP4 video represented by an NFT |
| Physical work | A printout of Sophia’s self-portrait painted by Sophia |
| Robot | Not sold; Sophia remained separate from the artwork lot |
| Collaborator | Italian artist Andrea Bonaceto |
What the $688,888 price means
The reported $688,888 was the price of this individual March 2021 sale. It is a historical auction result, not a current appraisal, investment return, or evidence that every robot-made artwork has comparable value. Available reporting does not establish the work’s current owner, any later resale, present market value, or current marketplace availability.
Hanson Robotics founder and chief executive David Hanson described the result as “a great validation for this kind of creative project.” That comment reflects the project’s significance to its creators; it does not change what the auction transferred to the buyer.
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Why headlines say “almost $700,000”
“Almost $700,000” is simply a rounded description of the reported $688,888 sale price. The precise figure is more useful because it identifies the one documented auction transaction rather than implying a continuing market price.
What the buyer received—and did not receive
- Received: the NFT associated with the 12-second MP4 and the physical artwork included in the lot.
- Did not receive: Sophia the humanoid robot, ownership of Hanson Robotics, or proof of any general resale value for robot-created art.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: A single NFT lot titled “Sophia Instantiation” sold for $688,888 on March 25, 2021. It consisted of a 12-second video made with Andrea Bonaceto and an accompanying physical artwork by Sophia—not the Sophia robot.
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