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# Man Loses World’s Largest Digital Art Collection After He Can’t Remember His Password
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/man-loses-worlds-largest-digital-art-collection-after-he-cant-remember-his-password-april-1/
- Published: 2021-04-01T04:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:38:35.000Z
- Description: The $200 million collection include a lesser Beeple and a series of early-net fractals.
- Author: Sarah Rose Sharp
- Tags: Satire, April Fools, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 09:11 (2021, 2022, part 1)

Thad Brinkley is really kicking himself today after losing the password that guards his digital art collection — the world’s largest, valued at $200M. His art manager described the password blunder as an “unmitigated disaster” and added that the tech giant-turned-collector has looked everywhere, including on the Post-it under his stapler where he keeps really important passwords.

“Usually my password for stuff is *hellayolked6969*,” Brinkley told Hyperallergic in a phone interview. “But since this is an art collection, I went for something classier. So I’m pretty sure it was *VanGogh420* or *il0veBanksy\*.* But I was partying with the boys the other night, and we were drinking Macallan — you know how we do — and I pulled out the collection to show it off, and I must have changed it then. It’s a real head-scratcher.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/03/forgotten-password-april-fools-day.jpg)

“Usually my password for stuff is hellayolked6969,” Brinkley told Hyperallergic in a phone interview. “But since this is an art collection, I went for something classier. So I’m pretty sure it was VanGogh420 or il0veBanksy\*."

Pieces in Brinkley’s collection include a lesser [Beeple](https://www.christies.com/features/Monumental-collage-by-Beeple-is-first-purely-digital-artwork-NFT-to-come-to-auction-11510-7.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com); a series of early-net fractals; a never-released GIF of two smallish monkeys said to have “uncanny power”; and the original avatar image for [pixelatedboat](https://twitter.com/pixelatedboat?lang=en&ref=hyperallergic.com) on Twitter. Thus far, the collector has been pretty philosophical about the loss of his collection, which he paid for largely in Bitcoin and GameStop dividends.

“Easy come, easy go,” Brinkley shrugged. “As I understand it, this art never really existed in the first place, or something. The important thing was that I got to flex on my friends. Epic!”

“I don’t really get art,” he added.