The museum response to the Art NFT

Abstract

This chapter explores the opportunities and challenges presented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the museum sector. Faced with unprecedented financial difficulties during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, NFTs offered to museums and galleries not only potential new income streams but also innovative ways of engaging with audiences and a fresh approach to collections. The grounding of NFT technology in decentralisation, democratisation, and direct trading relationships offered the possibility of a form of economic mobility for those who participated and had the potential to disrupt traditional art market structures. NFTs represented a new tool to explore creative responses to challenges faced by 21st-century museums, including accessibility, digitisation, and restitution. This chapter considers both the financial promise of NFTs for museums and the broader questions they have raised for the cultural sector. Important ethical and legal issues have arisen, and solutions are being sought by stakeholders from a multitude of disciplines. Given the pace of technological development, the rapid emergence of new use cases for NFTs and the complexities of the questions they raise, the search for answers will no doubt be an ongoing and iterative process, developing over time in response to the ever-changing landscape.