A glamorous divorcee who gained a million followers on Instagram after sharing emotional contemporary verses about her breakup has sold the ‘world’s most expensive poem’ for $525,000 at a New York auction.
Arch Hades, from London, collaborated with visual artist Andrés Reisinger and Grammy award-winning musician RAC to create a fine art Non-Fungible Token (NFT) – with the poem, titled Arcadia, selling for more than half a million dollars at Christie’s.
NFTs, which have exploded in popularity in recent months, and are sometimes pronounced ‘nifties’, are digital assets that record ownership.
They are similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in that they live on blockchain networks – a decentralised, distributed ledger that records transactions of digital assets.
Author Arch, who goes by a pseudonym, discovered her passion for poetry when she turned to it for ‘solace’ in lonely spells at her all-girls boarding school and saw her first book High Tide climb up the international bestseller lists in 2019.
Her writing draws upon her own experiences of heartache and the joy of finding new love following the end of her five-year marriage – with Arcadia – which has been labelled the ‘world’s most expensive single poem’ – exploring the concepts of modern day anxiety and loneliness.
A glamorous divorcee (pictured) who gained a million followers on Instagram after sharing emotional contemporary verses about her breakup has sold the ‘world’s most expensive poem’ for $525,000 at a New York auction
Arch Hades (pictured), from London, collaborated with visual artist Andrés Reisinger and Grammy award-winning musician RAC to create a fine art Non-Fungible Token (NFT) – with the poem, titled Arcadia, selling for more than half a million dollars at Christie’s
NFTs, which have exploded in popularity in recent months, and are sometimes pronounced ‘nifties’, are digital assets that record ownership. Pictured, the poet
They are similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in that they live on blockchain networks – a decentralised, distributed ledger that records transactions of digital assets. Pictured, part of the poem
The sale of the poem – which is 102 lines and 1,000 words long – was billed as the world’s first fine art NFT.
It explores the concepts of modern day anxiety and loneliness as by-products of cultural and societal constructs.
Buying a one-of-a-kind NFT means you acquire the unerasable ownership record of that piece of work, access to that piece, and the right to sell on.
Acadia was auctioned on Tuesday in Christie’s 21st Century Art Evening sale at the Rockefeller Centre.
The sold poem was in the form of a nine minute film illustrated by graphic art and brought alive with music.
Arch said: ‘Just to be able to create a work of art with a message I’m so passionate about with my two friends, whom I respect and admire so deeply, was already a dream come true.
‘Then to have our work selected by the world’s leading art auction house for such a prestigious sale is something I never thought was possible for me.
‘Now having the most expensive poem ever sold is just an incredibly surreal feeling and I’m thrilled with how well Arcadia was received by everyone.
‘I’m hoping this inspires other women and creatives to go after whatever it is they’re passionate about, nothing is too far out of reach.’
The author continued: ‘The idea for Arcadia came to RAC and I when we were admiring the works of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood at the National Portrait Gallery in London years ago.
‘I was rambling on about how much I adored the way John Everett Millais would illustrate scenes from Tennyson’s poetry, and André asked me a question I hadn’t considered – “what’s stopping us from doing the same?”
‘Then during the pandemic André introduced me to the world of NFTs and we collaborated with the incredibly talented Andrés Reisinger (and we created a poem that was auctioned for $71,000 in March) and that’s when I knew the stars had aligned for our dream project to become a reality.
‘It was the right time, the right medium, with the right people, and the right platform,’ she concluded.
Earlier this year, the best-selling author opened up about her childhood in Russia and father’s death at the hands of the mob.
She told Tatler: ‘At one point he really tried to stand up to them. He wanted to make a change. Unfortunately, he was murdered for it. They do what they want, they take what they want…’
She said she was born in Russia, which she described as a ‘total mob state’ where her family ‘had nothing’. She claimed her father was killed after he began to make a name for himself within the shipping industry.
Arch moved to Knightsbridge, in London, with the rest of her family at the age of eight, at which point she said her family changed their names ‘because they didn’t want to take any risks.’
Author Arch (pictured), who goes by a pseudonym, discovered her passion for poetry when she turned to it for ‘solace’ in lonely spells at her all-girls boarding school and saw her first book High Tide climb up the international bestseller lists in 2019
She explained: ‘As quasi-refugees, we had to change our names, go through all kinds of processes.’
She said she was unable to speak English and was nicknamed ‘the Russian’ by her classmates in her prestigious school Hill House, which Prince Charles attended.
She went on to attend the boarding school Wycombe Abbey where she made a handful of good friends, and developed an ear for poetry and classics.
Speaking to FEMAIL on the release of her first book, she said she first began writing poetry in school after finding herself lonely.
‘Unfortunately, I didn’t have many friends because I wasn’t cut from the same cloth and at that age anything foreign is heinous,’ she explained.
The author’s (pictured) writing draws upon her own experiences of heartache and the joy of finding new love following the end of her five-year marriage – with Arcadia – which has been labelled the ‘world’s most expensive single poem’ – exploring the concepts of modern day anxiety and loneliness
‘As it was a boarding school, it was a pretty lonely existence and, in the evenings, I’d go to the empty library to cry in peace, but after a while I ended up reading most of the classics there over the course of seven years.’
Describing the years that followed working in politics as eye-opening, Arch said: ‘After graduating, I spent five years working in politics, which opened my eyes to the world and also the world of human nature.
‘It was an immense learning curve and something that matured me considerably. But politics tends to polarise people.’
Giving an insight into her turbulent love life, she added: ‘I was with my ex-husband for five years.
The sale of the poem – which is 102 lines and 1,000 words long – was billed as the world’s first fine art NFT. Pictured, Arch
‘Then after an unpleasant divorce I fell into quite a challenging long-distance relationship, which ended quite dramatically.’
She added: ‘I harbour no ill feelings towards anyone, regardless how things ended or why, I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic and I don’t believe there’s such a thing as wasted love.’
‘Riptide’ is one of many poems in Arch’s international bestseller, High Tide
She now spends her spare time tearing through books and has eclectic taste – Goethe, Virginia Woolf, Somerset Maugham and the cult Slovenian philosopher Zizek are among her favourites.
Arch’s debut book became a number one poetry bestseller in Canada and Australia in 2019, reached the Top 20 in the USA poetry charts and peaked at number seven on Amazon’s Poetry chart in the UK – and has become an official bestseller with sales of more than 10,000.
The author favours a traditional approach to verse rather than contemporary styles, and says she is influenced by the 19th Century Russian poets.
She published the volume, which she describes as a unique blend of classical rhyming poetry and aphorisms about modern romance, after first posting some poems on her Instagram account.
The poet says that deciding to share her work on social media was probably the biggest step she’s ever had to take.
‘I was putting all these intimate thoughts out there in front of other people for the first time,’ she explained. ‘But the response I received was nothing short of fantastic, with so many people commenting that they could identify with my writing.’