CryptoPunk NFT Gifted to Major Art Museum in Miami

A CryptoPunk nonfungible token(NFT) has found its way into Miami’s Institute of Contemporary Art(ICA) with help of a generous donor. The token is one of the earliest NFTs offered for exchange on the Ethereum blockchain and was created by Larva Labs in 2017.

CryptoPunk NFT Gifted to a Museum in Miami

On July 9, ICA became the first major art museum to get its hands on a CryptoPunk NFT, when its trustee Eduardo Burillo gifted the asset to the institution. CryptoPunk 5293 is the first NFT to enter the museum’s art collection and will be on view this summer.

ICA Miami is the first major art museum to acquire a #CryptoPunk #NFT, through a major gift from museum trustee Eduardo Burillo! 🎉 👾 @LarvaLabs

Read on to learn more about the work, CryptoPunk 5293, which will be on view at ICA Miami this summer.https://t.co/MZbl7ZlaUk

— ICA Miami (@icamiami) July 8, 2021

For those not in the know, CryptoPunks is one of the most popular collections of NFTs consisting of 10,000 24-by-24 pixelated icons. They were created by Larva Labs that pioneered some of the first-ever NFTs in 2017. The icons feature 3,840 female punks who are described as “misfits and non-conformists,” by their creators and were heavily inspired by the British punk rock culture.

CryptoPunks have been bought for millions by NFT enthusiasts and were even plastered across billboards in Miami in a month-long exhibition. At one point during March, their sales shot through the roof to reach a staggering $96 million.

ICA Fosters Experimentation With Inclusion of NFTs

With the addition of CryptoPunk NFT to its collection, ICA has kickstarted its journey towards the inclusion of a range of assets that represent the evolution in contemporary arts.

Highlighting the importance of the acquisition, ICA’s artistic Director Alex Gartenfeld said, “CryptoPunk 5293 joins the ICA Miami collection as a work that is truly representative of the cultural zeitgeist and will have historic significance for generations to come, reflecting ICA Miami’s commitment to fostering an expansive understanding of contemporary art and cultural production in the 21st century. We are enormously grateful for the extraordinary vision and generosity of Eduardo Burillo with this landmark gift to the museum.”

Many investors feel the ascent of NFTs is unstoppable in the art world and that they would eventually occupy a key position in art history narrative. But the pace at which this is happening has surprised some people.

Although the NFT market has simmered down after a meteoric rise earlier this year, art-based tokens are still very popular. Last week, social-media behemoth Twitter dropped its own NFT collection of 140 tokens that will be given away for free.