Centre Pompidou Acquires NFTs

In February, the Centre Pompidou became the first major institution outside of North America dedicated to modern and contemporary art to acquire a collection of NFTs. Just two months prior, Buffalo AKG acquired 16 works as NFTs from their online exhibition Peer to Peer. Nonetheless, the Pompidou’s acquisition must be considered historic and included works from thirteen artists, including Larva Labs—the CryptoPunks and Autoglyph creators Matt Hall and John Watkinson—Jonas Lund, Fred Forest and emerging figures such as aaajiao and Émilie Brout & Maxime Marion. The collection, consisting of eighteen projects, explored how blockchain technology and artistic creation could reinforce each other as well as the museum’s commitment to contemporary technological innovation. The acquisition highlighted the museum’s interest in the emerging technologies that expanded the definition of art in the digital age. Another major modern art museum would announce NFT acquisitions just three days later.