By
Temitope Olatunji
May 13th, 2024
By venturing into NFTs, the Museum of New York is leading the move by traditional American museums to explore the web3 and metaverse space.
The Museum of the City of New York has filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Manhattan-based history and art museum shared its plan to offer non-fungible tokens (NFTs), crypto-collectables, and application tokens.
Museums and NFTs
After the lockdown, governments redirected funds to tackle growing inflation. Consequently, many museums witnessed a shortfall in funding. As a result, several museums have sought to embrace NFTs as an alternative way to fund their mission.
In September 2021, the Russian State Hermitage Museum auctioned NFT replicas of five of its famous paintings, raising $444,000. Also, the Vienna-based Belvedere museum fractionalized Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss’ into an NFT drop of 10,000 NFTs. Again, the British Museum agreed to a multi-year deal to create NFTs with the Ethereum-based NFT platform LaCollection. Using digitalized works of Katsushika Hokusai and J.M.W. Turner, the museum raised millions, according to a spokesperson for the project.
Interestingly, American museums are not as quick to embrace the crypto and NFTs trend. According to Tina Ryan, a digital art curator at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, “American museums are nonprofit organizations that work in the public trust.” Ryan believes the legal and moral expectations for the venture make them reluctant to jump on NFT trends.
“There are legal, environmental, and other ramifications that have to be thought about very carefully,” she noted. However, Ryan believes American museums are already deliberating on incorporating NFTs into their mission.
About the Museum of the City of New York
Established in 1923, the Museum of New York has six curatorial departments. The departments focus on costumes, decorative arts, paintings, photographs, sculpture, and theatre. Accordingly, the museum houses items depicting the cultural and economic significance of the city that never sleeps.
By venturing into NFTs, the Museum of New York is leading the move by traditional American museums to explore the web3 and metaverse space. Before this time, regular museums have yet to embrace the trend. Instead, NFT museums have been springing up. In May 2021, the first NFT museum opened in Seattle. Also, in July, an NFT gallery opened in Midtown Manhattan, allowing creators globally to display their digital art.