NFTs present challenges for collectors beyond the logistics of ownership and exchange, but also in terms of long-term sustainability and authorship of these artworks. Questions arise as to what stake various blockchain technologies have in guaranteeing that these unique assets have a life beyond the immediate, and questions around the transmutability of these assets onto other blockchain systems remain murky. For this installment of NFTs and the Museum, LACMA Digital Preservation Manager Joey Heinen interviewed Elian Carsenat, computer scientist and founder of UNCOPIED, an authentication system for digital artworks (including NFTs).

Object in inventory n°1990/2572-Dog-Est-B.Toro, Dogon votive statue (detail), anonymous, pre-20th century, 32x11x9 cm, © Richard A. Pierron, Galerie Sirius African Art, Mali, West-Africa. This October 2021, Uncopied was used for the first time to authenticate a secure Certificate of Inventory (CoI) for a physical work of inestimable cultural and heritage value. The object 1990/2572-Dog-Est-B.Toro is a votive statuette from the Dogon Country estimated to have been created in the first half of the 19th century or earlier.

On 2nd July, a collector acquired EPOCH, “FREEPORT”, 2021; 1/5 for $8,200 USD. This was the first of five limited edition NFT by EPOCH gallery, tokenizing the “FREEPORT” exhibition. In many respects, it was a first : the first entire virtual Art exhibition digitized as a NFT, the first NFT for a collective artwork managed with an Algorand smart contract, the first NFT secured by Uncopied and commercially sold, with its own physical document (certificate of authenticity and collector agreement).

A Quick Note on Uncopied In February 2021, we started to demo a new kind of Certificate of Authenticity (CoA) to several artists, galleries and museums. Our prototype combined a chirograph and an Algorand Standard Asset (ASA) to secure the origin of a physical or digital artwork. The prototype worked great and we received some valuable feedback. We could feel the strong expectations from the Algorand community, as we were hoping to launch in May 2021.

Preparing for the aftermath of COVID-19: our cultural heritage is at risk A 2011 survey by ICCROM/UNESCO has revealed that up to 60% of museum collections are endangered globally. Storage overloads, poor conditions for conservation and budget constraints contribute to risk factors. 95% of a museum’s collections are kept in storage. Billions of objects are kept away from public sight. One in four museums have incomplete documentation systems. One in 10 museums, or less, have made their entire collections digitally accessible with pictures and metadata.