Auction house Artcurial is organising a first: the auctioning of 10 buildings and places in Cannes in the form of non-fungible tokens.
For the first time, ever, purchasers of immaterial goods using non-fungible tokens, more commonly referred to as NFTs, made from existing places in the real world will be able to make commercial or cultural use of them, after integrating them into a metaverse.
With the I Met My NFT project, the City of Cannes, the Pertimm Company and Artcurial, it will be possible, for example, to build buildings on the Croisette in the metaverse, to organise events at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, or to mount an exhibition at the La Malmaison Art Centre.
This event has been made possible due to a recent change in laws in France authorising auction houses to sell “intangible assets”.
NFTs are individual tokens with valuable information stored in them. Because they hold a value primarily set by the market and demand, they can be bought and sold just like other physical types of art. NFTs’ unique data makes it easy to verify and validate their ownership and the transfer of tokens between owners.
This allows a buyer to purchase a piece of digital artwork, or in this case, a site, on the internet at a reasonable price and get a unique digital token which proves the purchaser’s authority over the item bought.
The auction will take place on Tuesday 21st June at the Port Canto Harbour Masters Office on the Croisette, which coincidentally offers a panoramic view of the 10 sites going under the gavel.
“The sale of the collection of 10 NFTs from Cannes is an event with which we have decided to associate ourselves for its innovative aspect,” explained Arnaud Oliveux, Auctioneer and Associate Director, at Artcurial. “More than a simple sale of NFT, it is a future experience to live in the metaverse that we will offer to buyers and investors, a way to project themselves into another dimension but on the very real bases of 10 iconic places in the city of Cannes.”
Part of the total collected will be donated to the Cannes Endowment Fund and will be used to finance projects in favour of environmental protection.