A bit of Picasso at NFT: art galleries are atomizing their works to reach more investors

The Belvedere Gallery announced this week that it is turning one of the most famous works in its collection, Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’, at 10,000 NFT which will be on sale on February 9 for a price of 1,850 euros per unit, as explained in a note. With this digital “slice” of his iconic painting, the Viennese art museum plans to raise around 18.5 million euros.

This striking way of selling the certified digital reproduction of a painting is not new, although it is beginning to spread more and more among artists, galleries and museums of physical works that decide to convert them into NFTs. Thus, in December the New York Times published that Banksy’s painting ‘Love Is in the Air’ was going to follow a similar atomization process to ‘The Kiss’, with a division into 10,000 non-fungible tokens that would go on sale for $1,500 each, and the Washington Post pick up this very week that a ceramic work by Picasso was going to turn into 1,000 NFT.

In this way, traditional art seems to have found a new vein to obtain income from the works it treasures with a strategy that seems quite seductive: that anyone can own a piece of art history for less than 2,000 euros, even if it is in digital format.

One of the managers of the company that marketed the 10,000 NFT of Banksy’s painting, Particle, explained to the New York Times that his intention was precisely to bring works that, until now, have only been accessible to the economic elites closer to anyone. Non-fungible tokens, he said, allow much more people to be part of the art collecting experience.

The strategy seems especially attractive with world-famous artists and works, such as the ones listed above, because who wouldn’t want to own a small part of the creation of a timeless genius?

The sale of the NFTs of ‘The kiss’

The Belvedere Gallery has explained that those interested in acquiring the NFTs of ‘The kiss’ can sign up on an open list from January 26 on the thekiss.art platform. On February 9, those listed on that list will receive authorization to make the purchase of the token effective. They do not specify, however, if only the first 10,000 registered will receive authorization to complete the transaction, nor, if so, what will happen to those who signed up first but did not exercise their right to purchase.

They do clarify that each NFT will be linked to a specific segment of the work, and that these will be assigned randomly. They also explain that, once purchased, the tokens can be sold on any trading platform of these digital assets.

Regarding the NFT of Picasso’s work, those responsible for its commercialization have told the Associated Press which will go on sale this Friday, January 28, on the Nifty Gateway and Origin Protocol platforms.

Banksy’s ‘Love Is In The Air’ NFTs, meanwhile, began selling on January 10 on the Avalanche platform.