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MAK Vienna became the first museum in the world to buy a work of art with bitcoins. German artist and businessman Stephan Vogler believes that bitcoin and the blockchain are the best solution for digital art.

MAK Vienna, also known as Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, announced in a press release that it has made its first bitcoin acquisition, buying Event Listeners, a recent digital artwork by Harm van den Dorpel, Dutch artist living in Berlin. Event Listeners is currently on display at cointemporary.com, a “temporary online exhibition of art for bitcoin”. The press release states that:

“To date, the MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art  – is the first museum in the world to have acquired a decentrally authenticated digital artwork with digital currency. The museum sees this as a new form of collecting in the digital age and will exhibit van den Dorpel’s work in an upcoming show called 24/7 - The Human Condition as part of the first VIENNA BIENNALE 2015: IDEAS FOR CHANGE (11 June – 4 October 2015).”

To complete the purchase, MAK had to secure the help of two startups, the Austrian company Coinfinity, which provided technical support, and the German company Ascribe.io, which allowed the artwork to be authenticated through the blockchain.

German businessman and artist Stephan Vogler believes that the blockchain is a fitting solution for digital art. A digital artwork can be easily copied, complicating copyright issues. And only the blockchain, which allows to store all data related to the artwork, could protect it. With the help of dtb Rechtsanwälte, a law firm, he created a license that transfers exclusive rights to an artwork to the buyer. According to Vogler,

“In this way digital artworks are turned into virtual properties which are superior to material artworks in many respects: Their acquisition comes with more usage rights and their ownership can be easily proven. Furthermore they can be securely transferred worldwide with minimal transaction costs and – if paid with Bitcoins – securely sold without the need for an escrow service.”

Vogler is the first to use his system. He publishes his own artworks under this лlicence.

 

Alexey Tereshchenko