Gold casts of Mandela's hands sell for $10m in Bitcoin
Tue Mar 27, 2018 10:22:am Africa
4.2K By franklyn Anude
An Ontario-based cryptocurrency company is planning on buying a prized gold castings collection of the hands of late South Africa anti-apartheid revolutionary leader, Nelson Mandela.
Alberta businessman Malcolm Duncan, formerly of South Africa is selling the hands in one of the more unusual deals in the art world which would see the gold casting collection sold for Ten million dollars -in bitcoin.
The buyer, Arbitrade, an Ontario-based cryptocurrency company is relatively unknown but it's Chairman Len Schutzman says that is all about to change. The company which is building a facility in Waterloo, Ontario and plans to mine its own cryptocurrencies is just weeks away from having an initial coin offering (ICO).
Schutzman says the major attracting feature for the company is it plans to back all its virtual coins with some percentage of physical metal -including gold-, an idea that fits well with the acquisition of Nelson Mandela's solid gold hand. He says he'll seek to acquire gold bars or coins rather than art.
The real value of the 20 pounds artifacts collecting is not in its purchase prize but as a means of educating millennials about Mandela and Arbitrade through a global "Golden Hands of Nelson Mandela" tour the company plans to launch, Schutzman said.
The collection were made by a defunct division of Harmony Gold Mining Co. in 2002. Malcolm Duncan said he paid double the 1.8 million-rand purchase price -as a condition of being allowed to buy the artifacts- with the understanding that half of the money would be given to Mandela's charities by Harmony though it remains unclear if it actually did.
Duncan has so far been paid a bitcoin deposit worth $50,000 with the balance due to be paid in quarterly installments of at least $2 million per extremity, starting April 30.
"They take possession when I have the dollar amount in the bank," says Duncan, who has insisted Arbitrade guarantee the value in U.S. dollars, and handle the conversion. "At two-and-a-quarter million at a time, they take one hand at a time."
Alberta businessman Malcolm Duncan, formerly of South Africa is selling the hands in one of the more unusual deals in the art world which would see the gold casting collection sold for Ten million dollars -in bitcoin.
The buyer, Arbitrade, an Ontario-based cryptocurrency company is relatively unknown but it's Chairman Len Schutzman says that is all about to change. The company which is building a facility in Waterloo, Ontario and plans to mine its own cryptocurrencies is just weeks away from having an initial coin offering (ICO).
Schutzman says the major attracting feature for the company is it plans to back all its virtual coins with some percentage of physical metal -including gold-, an idea that fits well with the acquisition of Nelson Mandela's solid gold hand. He says he'll seek to acquire gold bars or coins rather than art.
The real value of the 20 pounds artifacts collecting is not in its purchase prize but as a means of educating millennials about Mandela and Arbitrade through a global "Golden Hands of Nelson Mandela" tour the company plans to launch, Schutzman said.
The collection were made by a defunct division of Harmony Gold Mining Co. in 2002. Malcolm Duncan said he paid double the 1.8 million-rand purchase price -as a condition of being allowed to buy the artifacts- with the understanding that half of the money would be given to Mandela's charities by Harmony though it remains unclear if it actually did.
Duncan has so far been paid a bitcoin deposit worth $50,000 with the balance due to be paid in quarterly installments of at least $2 million per extremity, starting April 30.
"They take possession when I have the dollar amount in the bank," says Duncan, who has insisted Arbitrade guarantee the value in U.S. dollars, and handle the conversion. "At two-and-a-quarter million at a time, they take one hand at a time."
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