In recent months, the nonfungible token (NFTs) market has grown exponentially spreading even into the gaming world. Now, the sector seems to be getting real-world use cases with its infiltration into the museum world.
A study conducted by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) discovered that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 30% of museums were compelled to minimize their staff. In that context, nearly 6% may never have the capacity to reopen to the public. However, the digitization of museums is happening at high speeds with some of the museums now turning to NFTs for different reasons.
NFTs Exhibitions
The Hermitage Museum’s “Ethereal Aether” featured 36 NFTs from various parts of the world including “Schrödinger’s Cat” from Dapper Labs’ CryptoKitties, Larva Labs’ “Cryptopunk #5652, and Mihai Grecu’s “NeoPyongyang I,” minted on Hic Et Nunc.
Curators Anastasia Garnova and Dimitri Ozekov explained this scenario:
“Interest in digital art intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic when millions of people sat at home for months on end with the museums closed. The first NFT exhibition will launch the creation of the ‘Celestial Hermitage’ — a new museum in the virtual noosphere, which in the future will be transformed into a digital branch of the actual museum.”
Furthermore, they stated:
“We are confident that the area of digital art, NFTs in particular, will develop in incredible ways, and that it can look forward to a great future — safe, smart, and fascinating.”
Guggenheim Partners co-founder Todd Morley introduced his plans to create the world’s largest museum dedicated to NFTs. He plans to set it up within a huge skyscraper located in New York City, four blocks from the Museum of Modern Art.
NFT Museum’s Fundraising
Three of the 20 largest museums in the world turned to NFTs to raise funds in 2021. They include the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (Number 2), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (Number. 4), and the famous British Museum in London (No. 12).
Other notable examples include the Whitworth in Manchester, the Kansong Art Museum in Seoul, the Uffizi in Florence, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, the Museum and Church of São Roque in Lisbon, and the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.
There is also an NFT of a whole museum that is based in the Metaverse known as the Museum of Digital Life.
Interestingly, the Miami Institute of Contemporary Art accepted a significant donation of “CryptoPunk #5293” from one of its long-term trustees.
The co-founder of French eco-friendly startup LaCollection, Jean-Sébastien Beaucamps, explained this development:
“To coincide with its Hokusai: The Great Picture of Everything exhibition (30 September to 30 January 2022), the British Museum partnered with LaCollection.io, to sell NFTs of 200 Hokusai works. For each NFT minted by our company, we will plant a tree to compensate for the wildfires of last summer and for our NFTs to be carbon neutral: we call it our NFTree program.”
These NFTs will comprise works in the exhibition, which will include the famed The Great Wave. On the other hand, another 100 will be acquired from the BM’s collection, which includes drawings from the recently rediscovered book that is now the subject of that exhibition.
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