British Museum NFT Collection to Feature Japanese Artist, Katsushika Hokusai

The British Museum is foraying into the world of NFTs with legendary Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai’s works. The museum is planning to launch digital postcards featuring Hokusai’s paintings in collaboration with LaCollection.

LaCollection is a new NFT platform focusing on museum and institutional collections. With the new NFTs, the duo is bringing the renowned Japanese artist’s works into the digital realm.

More on the British Museum NFT Collection

The British Museum’s NFTs will launch with the exhibition, ‘Hokusai, The Great Picture Book of Everything.’ The exhibition will open at the British Museum on September 30 and run till January 2022. It will showcase 103 never-before-seen artworks by Hokusai. These works were created in 1820s–1840s for an illustrated encyclopedia, which, however, was never published.

The drawings feature scenes from Buddhist India and ancient China, as well as the natural world. The exhibition will include both his original brush drawings and his masterpiece ‘The Great Wave’.  

As the exhibition unfolds, collectors will have a chance to buy over 200 Hokusai NFTs online. This will include digital postcards of some of Hokusai’s most famous works. Under the Wave, Clear Day with a Southern Breeze, and Off Kanagawa is included in the collection. While one edition of ‘The Great Wave’ will be up for auction between September 30 and December 20, the second edition will be auctioned in early 2022.

“It is so important that as a museum we continually adapt to new markets and find new ways of reaching people that we may not reach through traditional channels,” Craig Bendle, licensing manager at the British Museum, told The Guardian. “The NFT space is new to many people so allowing them to enter the market in a simple and straightforward manner is very exciting.”

LaCollection will sell some of the NFTs at a fixed price and will auction the remaining works. Furthermore, the NFTs will be available in four different categories: Common, Limited, Ultra-rare, and Unique. According to The Art Newspaper, the Common NFTs will cost $500 apiece. Additionally, the website accepts both cryptocurrency and fiat currency.

With the NFT drop, the British Museum is joining other museums that have entered the NFT space. Recently, The Russian State Hermitage Museum raised $440,000 from its NFT auction.

What is LaCollection?

LaCollection is a French NFT platform bringing together art and technology. The platform aims to become a go-to place for those passionate about art, museums, and NFTs.

“LaCollection is born from two passions: art and technology,” said the platform’s Co-founder and CEO Jean-Sébastien Beaucamps. “We hope that the platform will engage new audiences, those who have never visited the British Museum or engaged with their vast collection and provide the opportunity to discover its collection in new and exciting ways.”

During the resale of the NFTs on secondary markets, LaCollection will earn 3%. Meanwhile, the museum will get 10%. Ultimately, Beaucamps aims to democratize art with his NFT platform. In this way, museums will be able to attract a younger, diverse audience, he added.