Czech Prince Lobkowicz to Preserve Family’s 700-Year-Old Heritage through NFT

A 27-year-old Czech prince, William Rudolf Lobkowicz, is preserving his family’s 700-year-old legacy using non-fungible tokens (NFT). According to CNBC, the family has 20,000 movable artifacts, a library of about 65,000 rare books, and 5,000 musical artifacts and compositions. The Lobkowicz family also boasts three castles, one palace, and 30,000 boxes of folios- some of which have never been opened. The Lobkowicz Collections were reassembled over 25 years through restitutions. The collections feature paintings including Cranach, Rubens, Bellotto, Bruegel, and more. Some ceramics age about 500 years, and there are gold-gilded trumpets, 1,200 pieces of arms and armor, etc.

The artifacts and properties have been stolen twice by two different authoritarian regimes. First, it was the Nazis during Second World War in the early 1900s, followed by the Communist party.

The prince’s father, William Snr., also traveled to different parts of former Czechoslovakia to reclaim the inheritance. He told CNBC that the authorities took the and scattered them over 100 locations. William Snr added that the hunt resulted in the recovery of tens of thousands of movable objects. Now, the prince is using NFTs, cryptocurrency, and the metaverse to regain ownership of the family’s stolen heritage. He explained:

“You know, most people see the beautiful artworks and castles and think that this all comes incredibly easy. But in reality, behind the scenes, we’re working tirelessly day and night to preserve and protect these things. Nobody’s going to care about these things as much as we do.”

Lobkowicz to Protect Family’s Legacy with NFT

Lobkowicz said he wants to protect his family’s past by repairing the artifacts and safeguarding them using NFT.

“It’s not just about selling NFTs to support cultural monuments, but it’s also looking at how do we preserve a record of our history? Blockchain technology provides an immutable record of our cultural heritage, which you can preserve on chain, and that’s something that’s never been done before,” explained he.

Furthermore, the report revealed that the person that buys the Lobkowicz NFT after the restoration would get a second digital asset of the restored painting. After that, the family has financed over 50 arts restoration projects and raised $300,000 through NFT sales. Lobkowicz is planning to go deeper into blockchain technology. There are plans for an installment of a Non-Fungible Castle to hold on November 4th and 5th in Prague.

Before moving to preserve his family’s inheritance through NFT, Lobkowicz worked with an Ethereum-based VR world. The prince uploaded and sold a three-month restoration of the Chinese Belvedere room in one of the Prague palaces in the metaverse. He believes that each prince that lived before him has “something completely different” based on their times.