Russia’s Hermitage museum to host NFT art exhibition

Russia’s State Hermitage Museum, the second-largest art museum in the world, is preparing to host a digital art exhibition involving non-fungible tokens.

Scheduled to take place in 2021, the Hermitage’s NFT project will be Russia’s first exhibition in the field of NFT art, the museum officially announced Thursday.

The Hermitage’s contemporary art department is organizing the exhibition, which will be part of its “Hermitage 20/21” project. The announcement read:

“Non-fungible tokens have become a new form of securing rights to an artwork using blockchain technology, which allows you to establish unambiguous control over copyright and ownership rights.”

The Aksenov Family Foundation — a local cultural and social innovation fund — will be a strategic partner of the Hermitage’s NFT project, which aims to study new forms of audience involvement in cultural practices.

Located in Saint Petersburg, the Hermitage is a federal museum comprising three million items. The Hermitage did not specify whether the museum is planning to conduct an NFT auction sale as part of its upcoming exhibition. The museum did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, some artists whose work has been exhibited at the Hermitage — like Irish conceptual artist Kevin Abosch — have been heavily involved in the crypto industry, experimenting with NFT technology for digital art installations.