The fad of fractional fine art NFTs

September 20, 2022

By Anjali Kochhar

Fine art fractional NFT (non-fungible token) is something that everybody in the art community is talking about these days. So let’s find out what’s the buzz all about.

Fractional ownership of fine art doesn’t allow anyone to hang the entire painting in their homes but allows anyone to own a piece of the art. Earlier if an art buyer didn’t have all the money needed to bid and buy an artwork that they wanted in their collection, they had no other option but to watch someone else take ownership of it.

NFTs have democratised popular artwork through fractionalism where a collective can own a piece of art by dividing costs.

Arijit Mukherjee, the founder of NFT marketplace Yunometa, says, “For NFT owners, imagine their joy and pride in being to claim some part of a historic piece of work – say Monet’s water lilies for example. Owners themselves can be proud owners of works that only art historians and an elite class had access to until now.”

“With fractionalism, it’s time for art to take its rightful place in history and pop culture,” he adds.

This concept has the potential to make art accessible to all. Anyone can now buy a DaVinci or a Gustav Klimt painting by becoming the proud owner of the NFTs created around these paintings.

For an investor, this is beneficial too as they too have a global audience to trade the NFT artwork they own with.

Vivaan Kapoor and Rahul Kapoor, Co-Founders of an NFT-based platform CryptoRunners say, “Fractional art is a great way to see an artist you like, have been following, and have accessibility to own one of their artworks as NFT projects generally have thousands of artworks in any particular project. This allows an investor to be part of these projects that become big and reap the benefits.”

Abhijit Shukla, CEO and director of Tarality, said, “Art NFTs (non-fungible tokens) aren’t simply a fad for a certain segment of the population. Rather, this crypto-based blockchain technology is challenging notions of traditional art, and removing hurdles for those who want to participate either by creating or collecting. But, in order for these predictions to come true, the blockchain industry needs to continue welcoming in new players, educate artists and collectors on how to get started, improve the technology to make it more user-friendly, and, above all, never lose sight of the mission of connecting great artwork with those who will truly enjoy it.”

The fractional fine art concept is yet to meet its potential in the Indian and global markets. To make art accessible to all, a Dubai-based company Artfi is bringing the fine arts community into the blockchain, challenging the orthodox ways of trading art.

The company aims to make art collecting easy enabled by Blockchain and NFT. For this, the company is building a platform for a wider range of investors to invest in multimillion-dollar paintings. The paintings will go live on the platform for auction in a year or two.

The price of the NFT will vary for each artwork, the founder further said. One of the first collaborations they have made is with British artist Sacha Jafri known for making magnificent paintings. Jafri’s artwork worth $10 million will be subsidized into 10,000 pieces and each fraction will be sold at $1000, he said.

Commenting on the concept, Jafri said, “If you fractionalize physical painting you can actually enable millions of people to own a fraction of that painting and it’s not really about owning a fraction of the painting. It’s about being part of that community. That’s the key.”

“If you can be part of an artist’s journey then you’re part of something much larger than the artist himself or the painting itself. You’re part of the journey of that artist, and you’re part of that community. And with that comes a lot of you know interesting benefits for both artists and collectors,” Jafri said.

About the author

Anjali Kochhar covers cryptocurrency stories in India as well as globally. Having been in the field of media and journalism for over three years now, she has developed a sharp news sense and works hard to present information that goes beyond the obvious. She is an avid reader and loves writing on a wide range of subjects.