The recent sale by Christie’s auction house of the work of the artist Beeple ‘The First 5,000 days’ sold for over £50 million in March. What makes this extraordinary is that the ‘artwork’ only exists in digital formal. The digital NFT (or Non-Fungible Token – to use the technical term) has thrown a number of questions up in our market as to how to insure the ‘piece’. The owner simply received a ‘NFT’ which is a digital token with a unique identification that is secured on blockchain.
The question we are asking is, is this the future of the art world? Will more and more pieces of art be collected in this way and are HNW clients going to move on from collecting tangible art to virtual art?
What does this mean for insurers and what considerations do owners need to take to make sure that their digital asset is protected. The market is in its infancy and no doubt we will have more questions to answer over time.
Any thoughts you have on the matter would be gratefully received….
