Artist Sacha Jafri Collaborates With Artfi To Cut His Masterpiece Into 10,000 Pieces One of the top-five highest-selling living artists ever, Sacha Jafri, will team with Artfi to democratize fine art collecting through fractionalized ownership.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Collecting art has historically been the privilege of a select few. The elite collector community has traditionally shaped the course of the art market and art history. Now, blockchain has created an opportunity for a game-changing paradigm shift. This shift will allow the decentralisation of traditional practices of art collecting, ownership, and enjoyment.
One of the top-five highest-selling living artists ever, Sacha Jafri, will team with Artfi to democratize fine art collecting through fractionalized ownership. Aspiring art collectors can soon own a stake in one of Jafri's highly sought multimillion dollar artworks, thanks to Artfi's groundbreaking art investment platform.
Jafri's artwork routinely sells for millions of dollars. "Journey of Humanity," recognized by Guinness as the world's largest art canvas at 1,800 square meters, fetched $62 million at a 2021 auction in Dubai — the third-highest auction price of a living artist's work ever.
Artfi acquires works of art and creates 10,000 NFTs representing ownership of the physical piece. These NFTs include special royalty rights for the original minter. After the initial mint, these NFTs will trade on secondary markets, bringing greater liquidity to the fine art market. This will be the first time that retail investors can own a financial interest in Sacha Jafri's most valuable paintings and earn royalties for their participation.
Royalties and Partial sale Opportunities in the fine art world are something never existed in the history of fine art, Artfi brings a unique proposition for artists, sellers, and collectors to give them opportunities to earn Royalties on each NFT transaction and the opportunity to sell 90% of their art and keep 10% lock in their wallet for future upside if they consign their artwork with Artfi.
The company has established the Artfi Foundation, The physical works of art will be placed in the Artfi Foundation, a non-profit public trust and physical museum whose purpose is to maintain, preserve and display the collection on behalf of the Artfi community. Every work acquired by the community will be immediately integrated into the Artfi Foundation. The Artfi Foundation will operate as a public trust but for the enjoyment of the Artfi community. The Foundation will also develop a museum in the Metaverse where the collection will be always accessible.
Commenting on the association, Sacha Jafri, said, "This collaboration with Artfi allows for a new way forward, combining technology with fine art. The democratization of art is something I'm really excited about. This can connect my collectors all over the world to the ownership of one of my pieces. And as an artist, that's a beautiful thing."
Asif Kamal, Founder, Artfi, added, "This is the first time top-tier art will be accessible to everyone, the first-time art won't differentiate between those who can spend a lot and those who can spend a little, For the first time, everyday people will explore, learn, appreciate, and possess incredible, priceless creations firsthand. We're not selling you the image of the painting, we're selling you this concept of ownership of a piece of the painting. We're facilitating buying unique pieces of artwork.
Despite major selloffs across almost every other asset class, the fine art industry remains strong in 2022. Pieces have been selling at auction for many times more than their estimates with Barron's recently highlighting an "ultra-contemporary art mania" driven by "fast-moving internet-fueled culture. Particularly strong art works by artists from developing nations, with sales of African artists increasing 44.1% in 2021 versus the previous year. Meanwhile, the market for Indian creators is on course for it's best-ever year.
If successful, the venture could help fuel a burgeoning category of competition in the art market, with consortiums of multiple buyers challenging the pre-eminence of billionaire collectors at a time when the pandemic has accelerated online commerce. NFTs have become increasingly popular, accounting for one-third of online sales, or two percent of the overall art market, according to the database Artprice.
A few months ago, thousands of cryptocurrency fans, calling themselves the ConstitutionDAO, pooled their money to bid on an original printing of the Constitution at Sotheby's (having raised about $40 million, they lost out to the collector and hedge fund mogul Kenneth C. Griffin, who paid $43.2 million). Last year in March, the digital artist Beeple (a.k.a. Mike Winkelmann) sold his NFT "Every day's: The First 5,000 Days" for $69 million at a Christie's online auction.
