A team of journalists from the “Observer” decided to do a little “bitcoin experiment” while at the Armory Show which represents one of the top international art exhibitions of 2015. The guys from the Observer wanted to know if anyone would accept to sell them artwork for bitcoins.
They first asked the exhibitors they met at the Armory Show if they had ever used bitcoin as a payment method. Although it might seem that the art world is rather less liable to get affected by various technological innovations, interestingly enough, a female artist, Sarah Meyohas, created an altcoin named bitchcoin that is backed up by the market value of the artist’s works. To their absolute surprise, almost all exhibitors at the Armory Show never heard of bitcoin before. The topic of bitcoin payments was faced with a blank look, an up-brow stare or a bewildered smile.
The results of this little bitcoin experiment were rather frustrating to the Observer’s team, yet they believed that despite the enormousness of the show, it can’t be representative of the whole world’s art community. Accordingly, they reached out to the International Managing Director of Auctionata, an online art auction platform, and asked him if he ever witnessed artwork sold for bitcoin.
“We deal with about 100 countries, and in our two and a half years of existence, it’s never even come up,”
Mr Hartley said.
Bitcoin can be an ideal currency for artists all over the world. An artist can sell his/her artwork to anyone anywhere in the world and receive payment in bitcoin with ridiculously low fees. Moreover, the blockchain technology can help in copyrighting various forms of art. Bitcoin investors can chip in and help artists market their work via various business ideas that can revolutionize the world’s art community.
Image from the Observer