Article from: Art News

“Given that the matter is complex and unregulated, the ministry has temporarily asked its institutions to refrain from signing contracts relating to NFTs,” a spokesperson for Massimo Osanna, the director general of museums in Italy, told the Art Newspaper. “The basic intention is to avoid unfair contracts.”

The Uffizi Galleries and three other Italian museums entered into a five-year contract with an NFT production company called Cinello, one of several start-ups that is attempting to carve out a niche in providing digital ownership services for museums and cultural institutions. Cinello has made NFTs of works such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of a Musician (1490) and Amedeo Modigliani’s Head of a Young Lady (1915).

When the partnership between Cinello and the museums first began, the narrative was that these cultural institutions, like so many around the world, had taken a serious financial hit because of the pandemic and would need to embrace the burgeoning NFT market.

With the NFT market crashing over the past year and summer tourism going back up in Europe, that narrative may no longer apply.

The NFT of Doni Tondo sold for €140,000 ($170,000), but the Uffizi only made €70,000 from the sale after splitting the profits with Cinello. Crucially, Cinello also raked in an additional €100,000 in production costs, an Uffizi spokesperson told the Art Newspaper.

Cinello’s existing contracts will still be in effect, but no new contracts will be issued until further word from the government.

source
Article from: Art News

Article from: Art News

“Given that the matter is complex and unregulated, the ministry has temporarily asked its institutions to refrain from signing contracts relating to NFTs,” a spokesperson for Massimo Osanna, the director general of museums in Italy, told the Art Newspaper. “The basic intention is to avoid unfair contracts.”

The Uffizi Galleries and three other Italian museums entered into a five-year contract with an NFT production company called Cinello, one of several start-ups that is attempting to carve out a niche in providing digital ownership services for museums and cultural institutions. Cinello has made NFTs of works such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of a Musician (1490) and Amedeo Modigliani’s Head of a Young Lady (1915).

When the partnership between Cinello and the museums first began, the narrative was that these cultural institutions, like so many around the world, had taken a serious financial hit because of the pandemic and would need to embrace the burgeoning NFT market.

With the NFT market crashing over the past year and summer tourism going back up in Europe, that narrative may no longer apply.

The NFT of Doni Tondo sold for €140,000 ($170,000), but the Uffizi only made €70,000 from the sale after splitting the profits with Cinello. Crucially, Cinello also raked in an additional €100,000 in production costs, an Uffizi spokesperson told the Art Newspaper.

Cinello’s existing contracts will still be in effect, but no new contracts will be issued until further word from the government.

source
Article from: Art News