Reclaiming art: Would you like a piece of the Mona Lisa?
With the rise of blockchain technology, NFTs, and smart contracts, the art world has become more democratic than ever before. If your next question is, “What is an NFT?” Simply put, it’s proof of owning something unique that only exists digitally. If it is difficult to comprehend at first, imagine a personal profile on your favorite social media account. If you have such a profile, you most likely consider yourself its owner (since you have a password that only you know), and you probably see some value in owning it, even if it exists purely digitally. This helps understanding what it's like to own something that doesn't exist in real life. NFTs today are mostly tokens for ownership of an image, animation, piece of music, or asset in a video game.
Those who are a tad familiar with the non-fungible token market might question the aforementioned democracy. After all, you have probably heard about Beeple’s (Mike Winkelmann’s ) NFT sale at Christie’s for $69 million. You may have also heard about Grimes’ $6 million NFT sale last year, and you have probably familiarized yourself with some prestigious NFT collections, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, with a size of 10,000 NFTs currently worth up to $1.3 million apiece, or CryptoPunks, fetching up to a whopping $532 million per item. 'It doesn't sound democratic to me' — one might say.
We’re witnessing the physical world rapidly transitioning to the digital world. Thanks to blockchain technology and smart contracts, you can now own something that exists physically, but also in a digital realm. Art institutions like The British Museum in London and The Belvedere Museum in Vienna are launching historically important artworks as NFT projects. This means that people who buy a non-fungible token from that project technically own part of the artwork. In other words, the artwork is tokenized and now exists in the digital world as an asset. This opens up the possibility of the physical asset influencing the prices of the digital asset and vice versa.
Finally, it provides you with a unique opportunity to legally own a piece of something that you could not afford or even have an opportunity to afford, ever.
However, in the case of The British Museum, which has launched an NFT project based on JMW Turner’s artworks, the fact is that the artworks cannot be sold by anyone in the real world. This means that the only way to make a direct investment profit from the above NFT purchase is to resell your NFT on the secondary market.
There are different reasons why one would buy any type of NFT. When it comes to owning a piece of Mona Lisa, Klimt, or Banksy, such an asset could make you the owner of a classy asset with a story you can definitely tell at the next party. It might even become so sought after that you can make a big profit on the secondary market. Finally, it provides you with a unique opportunity to legally own a piece of something that you could not afford or even have an opportunity to afford, ever.
If you’re looking for both a long-term investment and a hard short-term profit, a suggestion is to consider tokenized physical artworks that are available on the current art market. First and foremost, they are the most affordable NFT's with very high chances of price appreciation: Art prices are rising rapidly and younger artists (under age 45) are getting expensive faster than ever before. You might even have a chance to admire the physical artwork in your own home if you choose the right project and buy a sufficient amount of NFTs or shares.
What kind of NFT would you purchase first? Let us know and we’ll meet you in the comments section!
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Kotryna Tribusinaite, 2022
©ArtAdvance
