Skulls of Luci

Skulls of Luci is a set of fifty paintings by Sam Spratt. Each shows a skull held at the temples by two long-fingered hands against a plain field of color, and most of them stare out with human eyes. Spratt painted The Blueprint Skull first and drew the other 49 from it, so they share one pose and differ in palette, texture and markings. Every skull also has a name, such as Ashen As Adam, Foreshadow or Matriarchicon, and several echo the psalms of LUCI, the painted story they belong to.

They began as a thank-you. In October 2021 Spratt opened LUCI with three paintings on 24-hour, no-reserve auctions and promised a skull to everyone who bid. He spent the following months painting one for each bidder. In March 2022 the 49 were minted with their images on Arweave, and the bidders were invited to claim theirs for free through a custom contract. Most were handed out at random. A few went as personal gifts, and the three buyers of the first chapter were asked to pass one of theirs on. The Blueprint was sold at auction. Of the handful nobody claimed, two went to the Blueprint's buyer and three became the prizes of The Monument Game in 2023.

Each skull is a seat on the Council of Luci. Spratt says the skulls "weren't planned as governance or status." Even so, their keepers grew into a circle that advises him. They meet in his studio, choose who gets Players and Masks, and their votes picked the winners of The Monument Game and Masquerade. In 2025 he gave each seat a Council Mask under the same name, shaped after its skull. His site traces each seat's keepers through sales, gifts, a swap and a theft.