The Hermitage Museum in Russia, which houses the world’s biggest art collection, said Wednesday that it would sell some artworks in the form of non-fungible tokens, such as a painting by Leonardo da Vinci (NFT).
According to a statement from the Hermitage, the sale, which began yesterday and will run through September 7, will be held by the Saint Petersburg-based institution in collaboration with the Binance NFT marketplace.
An NFT is a digital item with a certificate of authenticity produced by digital currency’s blockchain technology. It can’t be faked or tampered with in any way.
NFTs have been popular among art lovers in latest years, with some fetching millions of dollars.
A limited editions of NFTs will be released by the Hermitage, featuring a digital replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna Litta and paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Wassily Kandinsky.
Each lot has a beginning price of 10,000 BUSD, a digital currency that mirrors the US dollar. The museum will get 100% of the earnings.
Every NFT will be printed in two copies, one for the museum and one for the purchaser. The autograph of Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky will be included in the data of the NFT.
“The Hermitage is a conservative innovator, a conservative museum that uses the latest technologies,” Piotrovsky stated in a release.
The Hermitage, which was established in 1764 and is located inside the old winter residence of Russia’s imperial dynasty, has approximately three million art items.
