Swiss bank Sygnum and investment company Artemundi have digitized and "tokenized" Girl with a beret. Valued at 4 million Swiss francs (approximately 3.7 million euros), the work of the famous Spanish painter is being sold in the form of 4,000 negotiable tokens. French investors can subscribe provided they are clients of Sygnum.
Girl with a beret is an oil on canvas (65x54 cm) painted by Pablo Picasso in 1964. Today, the painting is stored in a specialized high-security warehouse somewhere in the Swiss Confederation. But qualified investors who wish to diversify their portfolio can buy shares in it.
Sygnum, a regulated Swiss bank dedicated to digital assets, and Artemundi, an art investment company, have in fact digitized and "tokenized" Pablo Picasso's work on blockchain, a technology for storing and transmitting information without intermediaries or central control bodies. French professional investors can subscribe to Girl with a beretif they are a customer of the bank, according to a spokesperson.
A first
"This is the first time that title to a work of art by Pablo Picasso - and a work of art more generally - has been issued on the public blockchain by a regulated bank, allowing investors to buy and trade "shares" of the painting, called Art Security Tokens (ASTs)", explains the joint communiqué.
ASTs are a different form of title than NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens), which also guarantee their holders authenticity through registration in a blockchain registry. Unlike NFTs, which the art world has also seized upon, ASTs are interchangeable (fungible), making them easy to trade on an exchange platform, just like stocks or bonds.
It should be noted that token holders will have their share of ownership in the array fully recognized by Swiss law, under the Swiss Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) law.
Tokenization of loans or Château Latour
Sygnum is not new to the business as it has already tokenized loans to Italian SMEs, its own shares and even bottles of Château Latour.
"Since its founding, Sygnum's mission has been to provide investors with more direct access to ownership and value. Tokenization of the board Girl with a beret illustrates how we deliver on our mission by unlocking a universe of unique investment opportunities that are made accessible to the widest possible audience", says Mathias Imbach, co-founder and CEO of Sygnum Bank. "This innovative technology has the potential to open up the $60 billion-a-year global art market to new investors".
Regarding the Picasso, "4000 tokens can be subscribed directly via Sygnum's e-banking platform, for a minimum amount of 5000 Swiss francs (approx. 4610 Euros), and transactions will be settled in Swiss francs, using Sygnum's stable digital currency in CHF (DCHF). All tokens are tradable on SygnEx, Sygnum's digital asset trading platform", the press release details.
Progress for the art market
The estimate of 4 million Swiss francs was made by an independent third party, the American Appraisal Association (AAA), a Sygnum spokesman said.
"The tokenization of the board Girl with a beret represents two additional advances for the art market. By turning art into a bank-grade tradable security on the blockchain, liquid secondary markets like SygnEx from Sygnum can directly connect buyers and sellers. This then eliminates the need for intermediaries, reducing transactional costs and bringing more transparency to this market. The price of Pablo Picasso's works has shown continued appreciation and Girl with a beret has been subjected to the rigorous scrutiny of Artemundi, which has over 30 years of experience in arts investment", explains the press release
"As an active art collector for over 37 years, I never imagined that this could happen. Art and cultural objects of universal interest, once reserved for the elite or museums, can now be held safely, directly and without the usual barriers of entry of access to information, knowledge, connections and capital. The art market is incredibly opaque and inefficient, but these flaws will soon be those of a bygone era"Javier Lumbreras, co-owner and managing director of Artemundi, also commented.