Shares in Pablo Picasso painting go up for grabs at US $6,000 in blockchain sale

A Picasso painting will be put up for sale on the blockchain in the form of "tokenized" shares. Sygnum, a digital asset bank, and Artemundi, an art investment company, have partnered to tokenize Picasso’s Fillette au béret painting. The artwork was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1964. 

Shares of Picasso painting

The art investment company said that this marks the first time the ownership rights in a Picasso, or any artwork, are being broadcast onto the public blockchain by a regulated bank. It enables the investors to purchase and trade “shares” in the artwork called Art Security Tokens (ASTs)", Artemundi said in the press release. The shares or "tokens" of the web will be put on sale with a minimum subscription price of 5,000 Swiss francs. Tokens will be available for subscription to professional and institutional investors exclusively through Sygnum, a FINMA-regulated Swiss Bank. Mathias Imbach, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Sygnum Bank said that this will give investors direct access to the ownership. 

"It has been Sygnum’s mission from the start to empower investors with more direct access to ownership and value. The tokenization of the Fillette au béret exemplifies how we bring our mission to reality, unlocking a universe of unique investment opportunities that can be made accessible to many", said Mathias Imbach. 

Pablo Picasso painted Fillette au béret in 1964. The artwork shows a bust of a girl in the centre of the canvas, over a yellow background that degrades from left to right, according to the press release. The strong colour palette of green, red, black, yellow, and blue shown in Fillette au béret evokes an intensive and powerful time in the artist’s life. The painting has been exhibited in museums worldwide such as Galerie Beyeler in Switzerland, the Moderna Museet Museum in Sweden, the Kunsthalle Nurnberg in Germany, the LACMA and Phoenix Art Museum in the US. 

IMAGE: PabloPicasso_Arty/Instagram