The Particle Foundation, a digital fine art platform that tokenizes historic works, has decided to lend some of its most prized art to museums around the world. It will start with Banksy’s “Love is in the Air,” a 2003 piece which depicts a young man dressed as a militant throwing a bouquet of flowers, preparing to launch a universal symbol of piece rather than a weapon.
The Banksy work will first go to the United Kingdom, where it will be part of a Street Art exhibition called “The Urban Frame: Mutiny in Colour.” From there, it will go to Amsterdam and Barcelona for six-month stints in museums. Another historic work, H.R. Giger’s “Necronom,” will go on its own journey, starting with a stay in Prague’s Hluboká Castle.
According to a press release shared with Rarity Sniper, the initiative shows the growing interest from museums to embrace non-fungible tokens and tokenized artwork. While typically people see museums as staid institutions that are slow to embrace change, the acceptance of these artworks, which are tokenized, indicates that museums are getting onboard with Web3.
“One of Particle’s missions is to actually democratize art collecting — both at the point of buying and at the point of owning,” a Particle representative told Rarity Sniper. “By opening artworks up to co-ownership in this way, we are taking high value artworks out of storage, and allowing them to be enjoyed in real life by global audiences.
“This placement in institutions allows for more people to enjoy the artwork, and in turn to increase its value. Through co-ownership and our collective passion, Particle strives to bridge gaps, dismantle barriers, and ensure that art truly becomes a transformative force that belongs to all.”
In 2020, a group of leading figures in the art and technology worlds founded Particle to democratize the fine art experience. While throughout history art history was reserved for people with high budgets, Particle is aiming to change that by fractionalizing artworks so that people of most budgets can buy in.
Museums Embrace Non-Fungible Tokens
As mentioned in the previous section, museums might seem like a strange choice for non-fungible tokens. While their focus is generally displaying art, these institutions often focus on art from by-gone days. Tradition is their aim, rather than innovation. But, in a surprising turn, some museums have begun to embrace NFT art. Here are some headlines from the past year indicating that:
- Four Italian Art Museums Sell NFT Reproductions of Masterpieces
- CryptoPunks NFT Goes On Display at Centre Pompidou
- NFT Artists Featured at Orlando Museum of Art
- Yuga Labs to Donate CryptoPunk NFT #305 to Miami Museum
- Historic Manhattan Art Museum Prepares to Offer NFTs
- Murakami Art Exhibition to Feature RTFKT NFTs
- SuperRare to Open Curated NFT Gallery in New York City
- The Vatican is Creating a Metaverse Art Gallery
One of the reasons museums have turned to NFTs is simple survival: Some studies show that museum attendance is down, especially since the COVID pandemic, and that means lost revenue. NFTs offer an opportunity to gain some of that money back, allowing museums to continue to function.
In another interesting twist, popular NFT collections have put their artwork in museums, either through donations or open exhibitions. This includes Yuga Labs, which has donated CryptoPunks to museums around the world. In addition, RTFKT has been successful in getting its works into IRL exhibitions.
Perhaps sometime soon, we’ll see more Web3 art celebrated in museums. After all, who wouldn’t want to see an exhibition of generative art, which some consider the cream of the crop of NFT art. Rarity Sniper will keep an eye on this trend and report back.