Some ideas on how blockchain technology can improve the care of art and artifact collections
For this next series, I want to identify a few key ways, by no means an exhaustive list, that blockchain technology can – and I believe eventually will – change how we interact with art and artifact collections. I will not try to explain the technology as you can find many more articulate explanations, such as this one, with a search engine and some naive curiosity. Instead, I will focus on what the technology can do.
I first want to discuss an application that already exists: securing the title and provenance of an object. One of the chief characteristics of blockchain is its security achieved through the verification and distribution of the data across many nodes (other computers on the network) once input into the ledger of transactions, like an accountant inputting financial data on a spreadsheet. Thus, every time an object changes hands, the network verifies and documents the transaction on the ledger which becomes immutably part of the object’s history.
The security derives from the verification of the data by each node as well as the storage of the data on each node. So, when people talk about a “distributed network” in contrast to a “centralized network” they mean one where data does not aggregate in a single location but in many locations. Should someone hack that centralized location, all data stored there becomes vulnerable. In a distributed network, one must hack ALL locations to change data making it near impossible to hack. As a result, as the object’s owner or potential purchaser, you gain immense reassurance of the object’s chain of possession which stabilizes and increases its value.
I use the recent sale of the Leonardo da Vinci Salvatore Mundi as an example. As a completely unverified and highly disputed atribution to da Vinci, it sold for a record $450 million. Imagine if it were possible to document its provenance with blockchain technology and we knew with 99.999999% certainty that the work originated from his hand because we had a complete, difficult-to-dispute history of ownership; I believe the work would have sold for $1 billion consequently.
As a result, the financially-oriented entities of the industry such as auctions and galleries have more quickly adapted this application of the technology. Companies like Artory, Codex, and Verisart, to name a few, have made this a reality for several years now. Now, as an artist, you can document your works and their owners from the time of their birth; or, as a collector, you can deeply research your collection’s history and document it with a blockchain and consequently create a barrier island to weaken a surge of claims against the authenticity or title of your object.
Intercepting questions about the history of the object before they happen lead to the collaboration between Christie’s and Artory in 2018 where the auction house registered the objects involved in the sale to a blockchain after extensive provenance research and thus providing huge guarantees of authenticity to prospective buyers. The sale totaled nearly $318 million and will seemingly set a precedent for future sales and practices.
I see integrating this technology into standard practice as the next phase in its evolution. Major museums react cautiously to prospective change due to the titanic budgets and exorbatent resources required to implement them. I can see them relying on the verification in order to purchase antiquities, however, in order to avoid restitution cases and consequent public embarrassment. In addition, as they pursue research into Nazi-era provenance, they can clear the name of their holdings for the foreseable future by registering the works on a blockchain ledger.
Collectors, similarly, can minimize their due diligence on the origins of an object by seeking out blockchained titles which will additionally help protect a works value should they eventually want to sell.
Galleries and dealers, can benefit by registering the objects they sell to blockchain verification companies and use it to leverage higher prices based on verified provenance and title.
In general, the assurances over authenticity and value alone galvanize several reasons that the art and artifact sector will come to increasingly rely on the technology.
