As COVID-19 is threatening fine art, a Czech prince’s NFT collection aims to preserve his family’s treasure. As a result, digital collectors can now own digitalized 700-year-old assets from the royal House of Lobkowicz itself!
Czech prince William R. Lobkowicz is determined to preserve his family’s 700-year-old inheritance by launching an NFT collection. Credits: House of Lobkowicz
Fine art NFTs: a Czech prince’s ambitious project
This month, the royal family of Lobkowicz will launch a breathtaking debut NFT collection. Each item is the digitalized version of a fine art piece from the House of Lobkowicz.
Moreover, the royal family will host a gala at the Lobkowicz Palace on October 16th, to showcase both digital and traditional assets. The forum will feature legendary names, such as Dali Foundation Director JM Sevillano.
In addition, many NFT creators and influencers will also attend the gala. So far, William Lobkowitz confirmed there will be Syndicate DAO co-founder Will Papper, and Maria Shen, an Electric Capital investor.
In a recent tweet, William Lobkowicz confirmed that the forum will also be live-streamed for free. Meanwhile, enthusiasts can check out the exhibition virtually via the Non-Fungible Castle platform.
But why did the Czech prince suddenly decide to digitalize their inherited assets as NFTs?
The House of Lobkowicz aims to facilitate people’s access to fine art culture through digitalization. Credits: House of Lobkowicz
Digitalizing art in the COVID-19 era
Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been threatening the Lobkowicz collection’s integrity. This time, though, the royal family can take advantage of the current NFT trend to make his assets available to the public again.
In fact, William Lobkowicz recently revealed that House of Lobkowicz recorded more virtual visitors in 2020 than the highest annual number of physical visitors! This just goes to prove that digitalizing traditional art treasures can bring the fine art culture closer to the people.
As the Czech prince says, the royal family figured NFTs offer a great opportunity to experience arts:
“Decentralized, digital art has many advantages over physical art. It can travel around the world in an instant, unlike our collections which can’t be sold or leave the country without express permission from a central governmental authority.”
William Lobkowicz went on to explain that verifying the authenticity of a physical art piece is a time-consuming, costly process. By comparison, smart contracts allow any collector to track the ownership of a digital item instantly.
According to the Czech prince, “we’ve been experimenting with our own series of NFTs that tell the hidden stories behind pieces in the Lobkowicz Collections. We hope it helps us grow a global community of patrons who will contribute to the collections’ preservation and restoration.”
The House of Lobkowicz features over 40,000 artifacts, including Mozart musical writings and Bruegel paintings. Credits: House of Lobkowicz
The Lobkowicz’s 600-year-old inheritance
The Lobkowicz family has been fighting to preserve its art collection for over 600 years. When the Nazi took over Czechoslovakia, they used to steal any valuable property they could find. Later, the Communists did the same – although the Lobkowicz family had already fled to America.
However, the Nazis did left something behind: a receipt of every single item they had stolen. Accordingly, this practice helped Czech prince William Lobkowicz reclaim his family’s artifacts, after a 30-year-long court battle.
Thanks to the Czech prince, the royal family finally owns its impressive collection of 40,000 artifacts again – some of which will be available as NFTs. The collection includes rare paintings by Canaletto, Bruegel and Velazquez, as well as musical manuscripts from Beethoven and Mozart themselves.
