As museums begin to embrace NFTs, they face new opportunities — and risks

Non-fungible tokens have the potential to be a new medium for artists to explore and monetize their work, just as art forms have shifted and changed throughout history, according to a Toronto-based curator.

NFTs are a type of digital asset and are typically used to buy and sell virtual artwork using cryptocurrency. Each NFT has a uniquely identifiable token, and its ownership can be traced through a ledger known as the blockchain.

Art from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which features 10,000 unique NFTs, has sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Claudia Lala, curator and founder of LALAContemporary — a Toronto gallery that hosted its first NFT art show last year — says she sees them as a "new language" in the art world that shouldn't be ignored.

"We respect [artists] once they're gone or once, you know, the history legitimizes them," she told CBC Radio's Day 6.

"Art basically evolves because of the ideas that are being broken by the new artists and the new movements, and so I believe this is one."

The cryptoassets have faced criticism, however, with some calling them a "scam." Artists have accused collections of selling their artwork as NFTs without permission, and the cryptocurrency that powers them draw heavily on energy resources, so they have a significant environmental footprint.

Still, a handful of galleries across Canada have embraced NFTs, showing off the digital artwork they contain. A dedicated NFT museum also opened in Seattle last month. 

Meanwhile, major institutions are also getting in on the trend.

In September, the British Museum began selling more than 200 NFT postcards featuring works by Japanese artist Hokusai, partnering with a platform called LaCollection.

Dorian Batycka, a freelance art journalist, says the shift is a welcome change of pace for the often-staid art industry.

"The art world is in dire need of a shake up," said Batycka. "The art world tends to be very non-transparent based on cultural gatekeepers that have vested interests in maintaining a very opaque system in a very top-down, vertical, hierarchical way that seems impenetrable to many."

"And I think this is where perhaps NFTs can make a contribution."

But incorporating the art into collections hasn't been without challenges. A recent NFT purchase by the Institute for Contemporary Art Miami remained stuck in escrow last month as professional appraisers struggled to determine its value.