Artfi, a company that uses blockchain technology to democratize the ownership of fine art, just opened its whitelist for its Genesis Pass NFTs to the public. The move comes just ahead of the platform’s official launch.
According to the news, 10,000 NFT holders will become eligible to acquire fractionalized ownership of artwork released on the Artfi platform. The first piece that will be available is called ’The Six Elements’ collection by Sacha Jafri.
Jafri is a British artist who created the largest painting in the world on canvas during the pandemic. That piece, ’Journey of Humanity,’ sold for $62 million in 2021 — the third highest price ever paid for a piece by a living artist.
For the iconic ’The Six Elements’ collection, the artist was commissioned by Rolls Royce to create artwork for six Phantom Rolls Royce cars. He connected the cars to the elements of Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Air, and added a sixth element — Humanity.
’The Six Elements’ is the artist’s first fractionalized collection. Jafri said that he was excited about the drop, particularly because the fractionalization of art creates opportunities for people to own art “who otherwise wouldn’t have had one.”
Artfi, which runs on the Polygon blockchain, has divided the collection into 10,000 fractions, which will distributed to holders of the Genesis Pass NFTs. Besides owning a fractionalized piece of the artwork, holders will also be able to participate in future art sales by Artfi and are eligible for free token airdrops.
So far, the move to fractionalize high-end art using NFT and blockchain seems to be a popular one. According to the latest report, Artfi claims over 25,000 people have signed up for the whitelist, although only 10,000 will get a spot for this exclusive launch.
The Traditional Art World Is Embracing Web3
When NFTs burst on the scene in 2021, many people in the traditional art world were taken aback. How could a digital rendition of a monkey sell for over a million dollars? Of course, those were the days when the only NFTs that were mainstream were generative PFP NFTs. But since then, the art world has been slowly getting on the Web3 bandwagon.
At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered stories about world renowned artists, auction houses, and museums entering Web3. Here are some of the top headlines from this year.
- Vera Molnár Sells Out Generative Art NFT Set for 631 ETH
- The Vatican Is Creating a Metaverse Art Gallery
- NFT Artists Featured at Orlando Museum of Art
- Musée d’Orsay Partners with the Tezos Foundation for NFTs
- Grant Yun’s ‘The Last Supper’ NFTs Set for Auction at Sotheby’s
- Sotheby’s Celebrates 300 Years With Art Blocks
These headlines just scratch the surface of what’s happening with NFTs in the art world. The nascent technology is slowly transforming what artists, museums, and auction houses can do with their artwork — and more people are starting to take notice.
If Artfi’s whitelist numbers are any indication, the fractionalization of high-end artwork through NFTs and blockchain tech could be the next big thing in the space. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll keep our eyes and ears open for any updates to the story.