Art Collection
NFT spinoff from newspaper SCMP gets funded to tokenize historical artifacts
When an NFT series commemorating the handover of Hong Kong from the U.K. to China generated $260,000 in sales, Artifact Labs, the startup that launched the collection, saw the long-term potential of tokenizing historical artifacts and making them immutable and accessible to the public.
Artifact was born out of South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s flagship English newspaper bought by Alibaba for $262 million back in 2015. Its first project comprised non-fungible token versions of SCMP’s front pages from 1997, the year of Hong Kong’s handover, with each item’s rarity level determined by the significance of a certain day’s events.
The British Council is considering selling up to half of the 9000 works in its art collection in order to pay a debt of £197m. This is the remaining total from its £250m pandemic-era government loan. Without additional financial support, it is ‘in real danger of disappearing’ the institution’s CEO Scott McDonald told The Guardian. The council is also considering shutting its operations in 30 to 40 countries.
McDonald states that the British Council is committed to paying back the loan but insists that the government must help find a viable solution. ‘I would just like reasonable loan terms of something like 25 years and a lower interest rate’ he said. The Art Newspaper has estimated that the current commercial interest rate applied to the loan amounts to £14m annually.
Read More: https://artreview.com/british-council-considers-selling-art-collection-to-pay-197m-debt/
Hospital patients and visitors will be able to enjoy the stories behind artwork from across Dorset through a new app.
A new project celebrating 35 years of art at Dorset County Hospital will bring the art straight to art lovers with a collection of stories and sounds that can be listened to via a mobile phone.
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Art Collection
British Council could plug £200million debt crisis by selling art collection featuring masterpieces by Tracey Amin and David Hockney
The British Council may be forced to put its £200million art collection up for sale as a result of ‘financial peril’ which is threatening the institution.
The council is facing £197million in outstanding debt after taking out an emergency £250million loan from the government during the pandemic.
