In cooperation with the digital platform arteQ, the Belvedere Museum Vienna presented what is probably its most famous work of art to the new world of NFT marketing just in time for Valentine’s Day. “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt has been divided into a 100×100 grid for digital copying and offered for 1,850 individual numbered, high-resolution pieces.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the “kiss” is available in NFT
“For the first time in art history, Gustav Klimt’s world-famous masterpiece ‘The Kiss’ is participating in the Megaverse NFTestate. And part of it could be yours.” So begins the advertising video, with which the Belvedere, in cooperation with the digital platform arteQ, presents what is probably its most famous work of art in the new marketing world of NFTs, the non-fungible token, just in time for Saint- Valentine.
Until the end of last week, potential buyers could acquire one of 10,000 individual digital pieces by the legendary Art Nouveau painter for 1,850 euros each. Klimt’s “The Kiss” has been divided into a hundred-by-hundred grid for digital copying – and offered as numbered NFTs.
You can buy an NFT extract until February 9
According to Wolfgang Bergmann, economic director of the Belvedere in a Zoom interview, his museum is a pioneer in Austria and also one of the “very first museums” internationally. According to Bergmann, it was about “using the full range of technology”:
Until February 9, potential buyers had the option of buying an NFT denomination. Then the “mining” began, the blockchain digital embossing process, as well as the allocation of the 10,000 random kiss snippets.
If all the NFTs are sold, at a unit price of 1,850 euros each, the total would be 18.5 million euros. Who benefits from this income? Wolfgang Bergmann, general manager of the Belvedere: “The museum understands. Of course we have to bear our marketing costs, we have to bear the costs of technology, but most of it goes to the museum because – it must be said – the technical basis is not rocket science and does not go into the high fresh .”
The NFT market as a complementary field of activity
Irrespective of the fact that the Belvedere, like all other museums, suffered from a loss of income during the two years of the pandemic: The Belvedere would have entered the NFT world even without the Corona era, which helps the market for l art since 2020 put a digital stamp on it.
NFT auctions at major auction houses such as Sotheby’s or Christie’s are now attracting considerable interest from investors. The general manager of the Belvedere, Bergmann, draws up a sober assessment of the entry of the museum into the era of the NFT: “First of all, it is a new sector of activity. This is an additional activity area that does not replace previous activities.
Managing Director Bergmann believes that the fact that the Belvedere, Klimt’s Kiss, is the first work of art to be digitally copied from its own inventory and offered for sale in 10,000 individual pieces, will not impact significant in other markets.