Art Center Nabi, Kansong Foundation launches heritage NFT project

Art Center Nabi has launched a project combining cultural heritage and NFTs -- “me.Duck” -- with the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation in efforts to expand NFTs to the cultural heritage realm.

“We will initiate the NFT-based cultural project with an aim to preserve the value of cultural heritage and to show respect to Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil, the founder of the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation,” the art center said in a press release.

The Kansong Art and Culture Foundation runs the Kansong Art Museum, the country’s first private museum, founded in 1938. The founder of the Kansong Art Museum helped protect Korean cultural properties during the Japanese colonial era by collecting them to prevent them from being removed from the country.

The foundation is currently run by the founder’s grandson, and it has struggled financially since the founder’s death.

The project features 38 illustrations of cards which will be minted as NFT art, according to the art center. The illustrations will be based on cultural properties that Kansong Art and Culture Foundation has owned.

“The cultural heritage cards will be minted and traded on our own platform. The details on prices and the sale schedule will be announced next week,” said an official from the art center. “We wanted to expand the concept of NFTs to cultural heritage. We are targeting not only Koreans but also younger generations globally who are interested in NFT art across the world.”

An NFT, or nonfungible token, is a unit of data on the blockchain that represents ownership of a unique digital item such as a sound file, text or image. In late July, the Kansong Foundation tokenized Hunminjeongeum Haerye, National Treasure No. 70, to raise funds to operate the foundation. The illustrations will be unveiled Aug. 15 via the project’s website.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)