Hallucinations
Summary
Machine Hallucinations is a series of AI-generated NFT artworks created by Turkish-American media artist Refik Anadol, deployed on the Ethereum blockchain beginning in 2021. The project has generated over $30 million in total NFT sales across multiple collections auctioned through Sotheby's, Christie's, and secondary markets including OpenSea. The project is notable for its institutional legitimacy — MoMA acquired the related 'Unsupervised' work as its first NFT in its permanent collection — but has attracted criticism regarding conflicts of interest between museum endorsement and commercial NFT promotion.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 4 linked investigationsTimeline(9 events)
2016-01-01
Refik Anadol begins Machine Hallucinations research during Google Artists and Machine Intelligence residency, the first AI data aesthetics project of its kind.
Refik Anadol Wikipedia2019-01-01
Machine Hallucinations: NYC version exhibited, processing 300 million photographs of New York City using GAN algorithms. Anadol wins Lumen Prize Gold Award.
Refik Anadol Wikipedia2021-10-04
Machine Hallucinations — Space: Metaverse auctioned at Sotheby's Hong Kong. The lead lot sells for approximately $2.35 million USD (HKD 18,325,000), exceeding presale estimates. Total auction raises approximately $5 million.
Sotheby's 2021 auction page2021-11-01
Machine Hallucinations — NYC collection (1,000 unique ERC-721 tokens) minted in collaboration with Artechouse NYC and made available via Nifty Gateway.
OpenSea collection page2022-11-19
Refik Anadol's 'Unsupervised — Machine Hallucinations — MoMA' opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Associated NFTs minted on Feral File with MoMA receiving 17% of primary and 5% of secondary sales.
MoMA exhibition page2023-09-14
Machine Hallucinations: NYC Burn event launches on Nifty Gateway. Holders can exchange three MH NYC tokens for one MH Burned NYC token, a burn mechanics event running September 14-17, 2023.
NFT Culture2023-10-01
MoMA acquires 'Unsupervised — Machine Hallucinations — MoMA' as the first NFT artwork in its permanent collection. The show had attracted over three million visitors.
ARTnews2025-01-01
Machine Hallucinations – Space, Chapter II: Mars (Infinite AI Data Painting) sells at Sotheby's for $900,000. Buyer pays in cryptocurrency, purchase attributed to the Bity Foundation.
Sotheby's 2025 auction page2025-01-01
Anadol receives Time 100 Impact Award. Total NFT sales across all collections reported to exceed $30 million.
HTX News citing artist statementDecision Log
- hash: 4GvG1uYWhducQyoej9WeWRJzu5YJcTMSAMD1veJEu23e
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/28/2026, 4:12:47 PM
last updated: 5/28/2026, 5:25:06 PM
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