British Museum To Relaunch Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave’ & Other Artworks As NFTs
Image via Katsushika Hokusai / Wikimedia Commons
The British Museum, together with French startup ArtConnection, will be putting up non-fungible token (NFT) versions of Katsushika Hokusai’s artworks for sale. This project comes as the museum debuts an exhibition of the artist’s works at the end of the week.
Jean-Sébastien Beaucamps, a regular at the museum, found a way to help bridge the gap between traditional institutions and the modern digital era. He suggested the museum mint some of its most famous art pieces as NFTs, such as The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.
While Beaucamps had originally thought museums would welcome NFTs as a way to recover profits lost during COVID-19, it seems the British Museum was more interested in the idea as a way to connect with a younger audience.
“The British Museum wanted to get into NFTs as a way to reach a new, younger audience,” Beaucamps told ARTnews.
This initiative could also be a way to introduce vintage artwork and their origin stories to those who aren’t familiar with them. For example, Beaucamps said the younger audience he spoke to recognized The Great Wave, but hadn’t known it was by Hokusai.
As with most NFTs, the more exclusive the content, the higher the price. Only two NFTs of The Great Wave will go on sale and are considered “ultra-rare.” Other artworks will be offered in either editions of 1,000 or 10,000.
Beaucamps quipped that buying a museum’s NFT is akin to collecting a postcard from the gift shop, describing: “They’re digital, unique creations, and much easier to resell.”
As more museums turn to NFTs as a way to garner interest among millennials, will they prove to be the secret to restoring interest in such institutions? We’ll have to wait and see.
[via ARTnews, cover image via Katsushika Hokusai / Wikimedia Commons]
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