I don’t know about you, but I have been obsessing as of late about two seemingly unrelated and highly debated topics in the art world: Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi and NFTs.
Whatever happened to the painting Salvator Mundi, that sold at Christie’s in 2017 for $450 million and has never been seen again? Its whereabouts are in question. Switzerland? MBS’ Yacht?
In a new documentary that has aired on French television, The Savior for Sale, anonymous sources make the claims that the Louvre questioned the attribution of the painting to Leonardo Da Vinci. Did Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince MBS unknowingly buy a painting loosely attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci? We will probably never know.
Which leads me to the fascination for NFTs. I must admit, at first I found it very confusing; dismissed it as a fad, as pure speculation.
Yet, I have come to see the possibilities; the real life applications. Brick-and-mortar galleries specializing in NFT art are popping up all over the United States.
But ultimately, it is not what NFTs do to digital art that will revolutionize the art world, it is the Non Fungible Token itself, this digital certificate of authenticity (A.k.a. NFT) and its many applications for all kinds of artists that will.
Which brings me back to Leonardo Da Vinci. What if Leonardo Da Vinci had created and attached an NFT to authenticate his Salvator Mundi? What if encrypted in the NFT was Da Vinci’s right to royalties each time the painting sold?
Now, I can see why NFTs are so revolutionary. You?
[Originally published on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.cn/pulse/what-does-salvator-mundi-has-do-nfts-estelle-fournier ]
