By Courtesy of LACMA
The NFT market suffered a severe downturn in 2022, a consequence of the cryptocurrency collapse. But these digital tokens are making a comeback, enriching the collections of several international museums.
The NFT market suffered a severe downturn in 2022, a consequence of the cryptocurrency collapse. But these digital tokens are making a comeback, enriching the collections of several international museums.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is one of them. The institution announced a pledged blockchain-based donation of 22 digital artworks on February 13. A mysterious collector going by the name of Cozomo de' Medici is behind the significant gift. Rumor has it that it could be the American rapper Snoop Dogg, a long-time advocate of crypto-art and Web3, although some specialist media remain skeptical about the veracity of this claim.
This NFT collection is built around the creations of 13 artists from around the world who constitute "a representative history of the crypto-art movement," according to LACMA. Among them are Justin Aversano, Neil Strauss, Claire Silver, Cai Guo-Qiang, Yam Karkai, and John Watkinson and Matt Hall, the two Canadian developers behind the ultra-popular (and coveted) CryptoPunks. Their creations testify to the variety of forms and themes adopted by contemporary artists in the face of the emergence of crypto-art, the artistic movement linked to blockchain technology.
This collection of NFTs is the first and largest of its kind to enter an American art museum, according to LACMA. It reflects the institution's interest in digital works from the crypto world. "For decades, artists have incorporated technology within their practice, and the intersection of art and technology has been central to LACMA’s programming since the '60s," says LACMA director Michael Govan. "As one of the first museums to support artists’ experimentation with technology, it’s fitting that LACMA would receive this first museum collection of blockchain art."
It adds to LACMA's NFT holdings, initiated in 2021 with a gift from the Irish artist, John Gerrard, taking the form of an NFT of his post-apocalyptic work "Western Flag." The museum has since acquired non-fungible tokens from Tom Sachs, Erick Calderon, Jessica Wimbley and Peter Wu.
LACMA isn't the only art institution to expand its art collection with NFTs. Paris's Centre Pompidou revealed on February 10 that it is now home to 18 works by 13 French and international artists exploring the relationship between blockchain and artistic creation. They were selected by the acquisition committee of the Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, and enter the museum's "new media" collection, which focuses on art forms related to emerging technologies. This new acquisition allows the Parisian institution "to explore the most daring creative uses of this technology, engaging a singular reflection on the ecosystem of the crypto-economy and its effects on the definitions and contours of the work of art, the author, the collection and the public," it explained in a statement.
