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With the opening of the world’s first NFT museum, Georgina Adam considers whether the traditional art world is gatekeeping digital art.

Next week will see the opening of the brand new Seattle NFT Museum (SNFTM), apparently the first physical space for the display of digital art and NFTs. It is founded by local entrepreneurs Jennifer Wong and Peter Hamilton, both of whom come from a technology, rather than an art, background. Thanks to a link-up with Samsung, the space—in the trendy waterfront Belltown district—features 30 high-fidelity digital screens and will show digital works on loan from owners or from mainly Seattle-based artists.

But why create a physical space for digital art at all? Shouldn’t such art—created on the internet, which lives on the internet—be shown in online museums? There are already numerous such “museums” in cyberspace, some are more like selling platforms than actual museums. A quick browse on my computer brings up a number, from the Museum of Digital Life (which is actually on sale as an NFT, price 8.88 ETH, about £25,200); to the “Beeple” B.20 museum on Cryptovoxels.

The answer is more to do with the traditional art world than you might think. It is all about validation...Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.

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