Author: Scott Reyburn / Source: New York Times
LONDON — How does one invest in art without going through the complications of buying and owning an actual artwork?
That is the question behind financial products for investors attracted by soaring art prices but intimidated by the complexity and opacity of the market.
It is why art funds were all the rage in the early 2000s, and why new variations continue to emerge.At the same time, entrepreneurs are trying to iron out the archaic inefficiencies of the art world with new types of financial products, particularly the secure ledgers of blockchain. While the technology is best known as the basis of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, its promise of transparency could transform sectors like banking and insurance and, some say, art.
“More transparency equals more trust, more trust equals more transactions, more transactions equals stronger markets,” Anne Bracegirdle, a specialist in the photographs department at Christie’s, said on Tuesday at the auction house’s first Art & Tech Summit, dedicated to exploring blockchain.
According to Ms. Bracegirdle, blockchain’s decentralized record-keeping could create a “more welcoming art ecosystem” in which collectors and professionals routinely verify the authenticity, provenance and ownership of artworks on an industrywide registry securely situated in the cloud.
Hers was one of the more utopian visions put forward by the roughly 30 panelists at Christie’s daylong conference, however. There was plenty of skepticism on offer.
Sébastien Genco, a blockchain specialist at the auditing and financial services company Deloitte, said the percentage of global investment in this technology that related to art represented “almost nothing.”
Mr. Genco, in his talk at the Christie’s event, titled “Why the Art World Wasn’t Ready for Blockchain,” cited the art world’s slow embrace of technology, limited collaboration, lack of trust in a process that is not fully understood, and costs as some of the reasons blockchain had yet to have a significant impact on the art trade. But that could change, he said. “We just need to educate people.”
As the Christie’s event progressed, a clearer picture emerged of what blockchain could and could not…
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