In collaboration with NFT investment fund artèQ, the Belvedere museum is launching an NFT drop of a historical masterpiece. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the most famous depiction of a pair of lovers will be offered for sale in a limited number of digital excerpts.
Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss (Lovers) – one of the world’s most famous works of art and the centerpiece of the Belvedere’s collection – will be specially implemented as an NFT project. A high-resolution digital copy will be divided into a 100 x 100 grid, resulting in 10,000 inimitable individual pieces that will be offered as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
The buying process begins with a “whitelisting” phase on 26 January, 00.00 am Central European Time, when interested parties can register to purchase on the thekiss.art platform. On February 9, buyers will receive authorization to purchase minted NFTs of a piece of the digital Kiss. Minting is an imprinting process through which digital art becomes part of the blockchain – this guarantees that each NFT is unalterable and forgery-proof. From February 9, buyers can complete the transaction. The 10,000 segments of the work will be allocated at random. If the sale is oversubscribed, allocation of the 10,000 NFTs will be decided by lottery. The drop, or official release of the NFTs, will take place on Valentine’s Day, February 14.
Buyers can also register as owners of their piece on the platform thekiss.art, where the picture can be viewed in its entirety. This entry can also serve as a declaration of love – just in time for Valentine’s Day.