France´s Top Art Museum to Showcase NFT´s
On February 10th The Centre Pompidou, a modern art museum in France, announced the next art gallery to show Non-fungible tokens (NFT) displayed by 13 different digital artists containing 18 projects. Cryptopunk#110 and Autoglyph#25 were both donated to the museum. According to Xavier Rey, the director of the French National Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou is trying to pursue an interest in digital art as well. It will mark the first time an NFT makes an exhibition scheduled for April this year.
What Is an NFT
NFT, as name-dropped before, stands for Non-Fungible Token. It is a digital asset that has ownership of a specific item. Anything from a piece of artwork, music, video, or another collectable can be an NFT. They are stored on a decentralized blockchain, meaning they are secured with ownership tracking and record keeping.
Bitcoin or Ethereum, like any cryptocurrency, is a fungible token that can be interchangeable with something of the same value. While an NFT is Non-fungible, meaning they are unique and cannot be replaced or exchanged for a similar item since the market determines the prices for these items with a one-of-a-kind value.
Artists have been very keen on this since it makes their work unique to them and selling their item never needs a middleman watching over the purchase. Also, the buyer is sure to be known that their new purchase is an original piece that cannot be replaced.
A Perfect Way to Highlight Digital Artists
Yuga Labs, which has intellectual ownership of Crypto Punks has been very keen to donate its digital art to different institutions and has already donated Crypto Punk #305 to the institution of contemporary art in Miami. And now having the Crypto Punk #110 at the Centre Pompidou has them stoked about what will bring to the ecosystem of Web3 and NFTs. Larva Labs has tweeted about its donation and how honours it feels to be a part of this new movement that will probably change a lot of things for both NFTs in general and art as we know it.
Controversial Step Forward With the Future of Digital Art
The showing of NFTs has the potential to spark up a significant representation for other institutions to showcase more digital artform after being first shown in such a major place like the Centre Pompidou. However, it has also sparked a lot of discussions by critics, primarily pointing out the negativities about its value and impact on the art market. Some say its high prices will not last since NFTs won´t be that sustainable while others say this will give the artists more opportunities to earn revenue with digital art. Of course, it is all speculation and in the long run, we know very little about the NFT’s future, but this is a big step forward by letting more institutions take notice of the emerging trend.