Hallucinations
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anchored·5UgQ8J…HMvmSummary
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 · 10 linked investigationsTimeline(9 events)
2016
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
Machine Hallucinations: NYC version exhibited, processing 300 million photographs of New York City using GAN algorithms. Anadol wins Lumen Prize Gold Award.
Refik Anadol Wikipedia4 October 2021
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 pageNovember 2021
Machine Hallucinations — NYC collection (1,000 unique ERC-721 tokens) minted in collaboration with Artechouse NYC and made available via Nifty Gateway.
OpenSea collection page19 November 2022
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 page14 September 2023
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 CultureOctober 2023
MoMA acquires 'Unsupervised — Machine Hallucinations — MoMA' as the first NFT artwork in its permanent collection. The show had attracted over three million visitors.
ARTnews2025
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
Anadol receives Time 100 Impact Award. Total NFT sales across all collections reported to exceed $30 million.
HTX News citing artist statementDecision Log
- hash: CjNPYLHmwHn3rEyRzqtzeSqQ7NtMHV6FJYFLMWH9CEZK
- hash: 8uv6t37Gb3jKBFwCbEm51cfPou69qaSKvzjzef2AeEiL
- hash: 4GvG1uYWhducQyoej9WeWRJzu5YJcTMSAMD1veJEu23e
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (3 events). 17 of 17 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/28/2026, 4:12:47 PM
last updated: 7/25/2026, 10:30:05 AM
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