(Seattle) A museum entirely devoted to NFTs, certified digital works that are all the rage on the art market, has opened its doors in Seattle, a city in the northwest of the United States renowned for its artistic dynamism.
Posted at 10:31 p.m.
The Museum of NFTs in Seattle presents original works accompanied by explanations of the technologies that make them possible. Its purpose is to help visitors navigate the brand new world of “Non-Fungible Token” (NFT), digital objects whose ownership is traceable.
“The whole point of having a physical location is to make it easier for everyone to access,” says museum co-founder Peter Hamilton.
“You can go in and, regardless of what you know or don’t know about digital art, NFTs, because you can see the works presented in large format, in a way that reminds you of an exhibition in a museum”, he said.
NFTs are certificates of authenticity associated with a virtual object which they thus make unique.
Even though their contents may be copied, the NFT itself still remains “the original”, in the same way that there are countless reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, but the original painting still hangs on the Louvre.
Hen with golden eggs
Virtually unknown just a year ago, they represent for some the new goose that lays the golden egg on the contemporary art market.
Investors and wealthy collectors have rushed to acquire these virtual items, whose ownership is traceable using the same blockchain technology used for bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
NFTs have become essential lots for major auction houses, such as Christie’s, which sold a digital work by the artist Beeple for the record sum of $69.3 million, in New York in March 2021.
This new fashion arouses concerns and the skepticism of some about its durability, but visitors to the Seattle museum do not have the feeling of having been victims of a mirage.
“It’s a bit of a global phenomenon and we’re seeing it emerge,” said Cara, a visitor.
Hamilton says he’s excited to see the evolution of NFTs in the art scene live.
“It’s hard to say where this technology will take us, it’s really only in its infancy,” he said.
“If someone tells you they’re an NFT expert, they’re lying to you because we’re all learning, we’re all at the very beginning of an experience that’s just beginning,” he says. .