Hermitage State Museum, the largest art museum in Russia and the second largest in the world, is set to host an NFT exhibition this year. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, offer a nascent method to secure rights to digital arts.
The exhibition, dubbed “Hermitage 20/21,” shall be hosted by the museum’s contemporary art arm. The project will be made possible through collaboration with the Aksenov Family Foundation.
The Hermitage museum is located in St. Petersburg and hosts a whopping 3 million items. It is run by the Russian Federal government and features masterpieces such as those from Kevin Abosch, a conceptual artist with an Irish descent.
The planned NFT project will not be its first foray into the blockchain scene, since it has been experimenting with NFTs for several months. Non-fungible tokens are hosted on the Ethereum network. These tokes make it possible to own rights to intangible assets like digital items.
Since these tokens are unique, it is not possible to duplicate them; which lends them their value and importance for use as digital assets. They are rare by design; making them suitable for use in the world of arts. This will be Russia’s first use of NFTs for an art exhibition.