Why the world’s largest museum uses NFT technology

The State Hermitage Museum’s contemporary art director shares his vision for the future of NFT art.

Videotapes

Ultimately, all museums will make their digital copies in the Metaverse, according to Dmitry Ozerkov, head of the contemporary art department at Point out Hermitage Museum.

Ozerkov is currently developing the Celestial Hermitage, a digital version of the iconic Russian museum that will showcase NFT art.

“We are all moving into the digital age and our digitally born music couple will follow us everywhere,” Ozerkov told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.

The Point out Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is the world’s largest museum in terms of gallery space with around 3 million works of art.

In September 2021, the museum took its first steps in the world  by selling 5 digital copies of its most famous masterpieces as NFTs for nearly $ 450,000.

In November, the Hermitage launched its first fully digital exhibition entitled “The Ethereal Aether”, in which 38 NFTs are shown in a digital reproduction of the museum.

Unlike the physical Hermitage, where visitors can only see works on display, virtual exhibitions allow visitors to interact with the NFTs on display.

“You can walk through these doors without touching anything, while in the virtual world you can do anything: you can play with works of art, you can make them interactive, you can add data to them,” explains Ozerkov.

The exhibition can be accessed online free of charge until December 10th.

As Ozerkov pointed out, Hermitage’s interest in NFTs goes beyond market dynamics and seeks to explore the artistic value that NFTs can bring to the contemporary art world.

“My idea was to view the works that were already on the market and put them in a museum and look: What remains of them is art? Is there art there or do we like what we appreciate about it is just money? “.