Art and technology have always been polar opposites but at the same time, it was important for these two polar opposites to co-exist. Never was a time when these two would converge beautifully without compromising on the classical aspects of the other. While there has been an increase in the creation of digital art, it has conveniently excluded the artists who are still confined to the old school method of creating art.
However, combining the awesomeness of blockchain with the collectible art industry has created the much-needed confluence. There might be a lot of questions regarding regulation, standardization, and governance. However, the interest of the stakeholders and the startups that are looking forward to creating a flawless convergence of art and blockchain technology is steadily increasing. It is quite evident in the way the art world has started to accept blockchain and vice versa.
Just like any innovation that challenges the classics, blockchain has had its own share of friction and resistance when it came to art. As much as they have been events that have shown the convergence of blockchain and art in good light, there have also been instances like the Deloitte Art Finance Conference where blockchain based tokenization was met with skepticism.
Many have expressed their worries about blockchain opening the floodgates to forgeries, creating inconsistencies in stored data and causing scalability and performance issues. One of the biggest challenges when it comes to collectible art lies in tracking provenance. With deeper research, there have been instances when paintings have been reassessed and given different attributions. There have also been instances where a painting has been sold under deliberately vague attributions using the names of famous artists like Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo.
The immutability of the blockchain means that the attribution and the province cannot be altered at a later stage. This might leave permanent inaccuracies which are not at all good for a collectible industry like art.
The Future:
There has never been a technology that got everything right at the first shot! The blockchain is still in its infancy, and with the backing of big names like Christie's, there is a considerable chance that the blockchain might slowly replace the trust and efficiency of a specialist and slowly leader the technological transformation of the art market. After all, who would not love the art market being democratic and transparent?!
