The State Hermitage Museum NFT Auction Raises $440K

This summer, The Russian State Hermitage Museum surprised the art world by turning five legendary paintings into NFTs. In sum, the auction was incredibly successful, raising a total of $440K.

The State Hermitage Museum: NFT art honouring traditional artists

As NFTs have increased in popularity, more and more surprising institutions are joining the market. Recently, the Russian State Hermitage Museum has closed its first NFT auction hosted by Binance.

During the auction, collectors were able to bid for five digitalized versions of the most renowned paintings worldwide. The ultra-high quality copies included Van Gogh’s ‘Lilac Bush and ‘ Giorgine’s ‘Judith,’ to name a few. Additionally, bidders could also get ‘Composition VI’ by Wassily Kadinsky and ‘Corner of the Garden at Montgeron’ by Claude Monet.

However, the star of the auction was, without a doubt, ‘The Madonna and Child,’ painted flawlessly by Leonardo da Vinci. Reportedly, the NFT recorded the highest bid, reaching 150,500 BUSD (Binance USD).

In summary, The State Hermitage Museum auction raised an impressive $444,000 on Binance.

In a recent statement, a Hermitage spokesperson declared that all proceeds will go to the museum “except for the expenses agreed in the contract within the framework of this project The Hermitage does not make any operations with cryptocurrency. All funds will go to the Hermitage in Fiat currency — Russian rubles.”

The beginning of a new era

This auction could only mark the beginning of a new era – one where NFT collectors can enjoy bidding for their favorite traditional artworks.

Back in July, the Russian State Hermitage Museum revealed its attempt to work through the Russian legal regulation to tokenize more artworks soon. Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky is confident that NFTs are (and will remain) an important part of the new art world:

“New technologies, in particular blockchain, have opened a new chapter in the development of the art market, led by the ownership and the guarantee of this ownership. This is an important stage in the development of the relationship between person and money, person and thing.”