Uffizi Michelangelo NFT for €70k
May 14 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Well, I suppose some museum had to be first.
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence seems to be one of the first major museums to licensce a bespoke NFT of Michelangelo's Doni Tondo. The museum has been working with the company DAW® to create this 'digital art work' which will be priced at €70,000. 50% of proceeds will go to the museum.
According to press reports (whatever this means anyway):
It is the first unique digital screen printing, authenticated by Blockchain and protected by patent, a masterpiece of the museum.
...
Once realized, the DAW® is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the Director of the museum that holds the original.
I'm reminded of the sentiment expressed in a recent interview with Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, when asked about the value of 'Bitcoin':
They have no intrinsic value... That doesn’t mean to say people don’t put value on them, because they can have extrinsic value. But they have no intrinsic value…I’m going to say this very bluntly again. Buy them only if you’re prepared to lose all your money.
Update - My attention has been drawn to another article in the Italian press which suggests that financial concerns are at the heart of this experiment and particularly an attempt to balance the books after covid. 17 artworks from the collection will be produced into NFTs, creating quite a lump sum as you might imagine.
If Eike Schmidt really wants to discourage the mass tourism of the past, I suppose we'll encounter more curious and slightly cynical financial schemes like the present one.
