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The British Museum is returning to the NFT market with the listing of a rare collection of JMW Turner paintings in digital form
Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 11 Jan 2022
A collection of 20 Turner NFTs, including A Storm (Shipwreck) from 1823, will be placed on LaCollection’s crypto art marketplace Credit: The Trustees of the British Museum
London’s British Museum is reentering the NFT field, with the institution banking on the lucrative sale of JMW Turner paintings from its collection in the form of non-fungible tokens.
Purchased with cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, NFTs act as a certificate of ownership for a digital asset. By purchasing the NFT, the purchaser gains ownership of the original digital file.
The British Museum first entered the world of NFTs in September 2021, partnering with digital art marketplace LaCollection for the sale of more than 200 digital Hokusai postcards.
Now, the museum is partnering once again with the platform to sell the collection of 20 Turner paintings in digital format as NFTs.
Given to the museum by Robert Wylie Lloyd, who died in 1958, it was stipulated that the works by Turner could only be displayed during the first two weeks of February or by special request. It was also declared that the paintings could never be lent to another institution. In NFT form, this changes things somewhat.
The Turner works have been split into three categories: Ultra Rare, Super Rare and Open Edition.
There will be nine Ultra Rare versions, each with two editions, one of which will be retained by the museum. In the Super Rare category will be seven works, each with 10 editions, one of which will be retained by the museum. Four works will be sold as Open Edition, with a maximum of 99 to be sold over a 48-hour period.
Prices for the works start at €799 (US$904, £666), with the Ultra Rare editions selling for €4,999 (US$5,662, £4,170. Those who previously purchased a Hokusai NFT will be given priority, with private sales taking place on February 8 and February 9, while a general sales market will run from February 9 to March 4.
Museums and galleries
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