Swiss-regulated digital asset bank Sygnum has partnered with art investment company Artemundi to tokenize the iconic Andy Warhol artwork, Four Marilyns by offering Art Security Tokens. The partnership aims to use blockchain to lower financial barriers and democratize art investment through fractional ownership.
Andy Warhol’s Four Marilyns (Reversal) is currently valued at CHF 5.7 million ($5.8m), and has been tokenized on Sygnum’s platform. Although non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are ordinarily singular and unique by definition, Sygnum’s Desygnate tokenization solution provides for fractional ownership equivalent to shares in the artwork, with 5000 security tokens available. Clients are thus able to split the cost and risk of investment in high-value artwork by purchasing tokens via Sygnum’s e-banking portal and trading in the secondary market via Sygnum’s SygnEX platform.
“Warhol’s iconic Four Marilyns truly immortalizes one of the Golden Age of cinema’s most illustrious stars”, said Fatmire Bekiri, Sygnum Bank’s Head of Tokenization. “By leveraging blockchain technology, we’re building a future where owning such world-renowned paintings could one day be as simple as buying a can of tomato soup – like those also made famous by Warhol.”
In some cases, NFT companies break the law by fractionalizing an NFT, which turns it into a security. However, as a bank, Sygnum is licensed by FINMA. Additionally, Switzerland has its DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) framework making it one of the few jurisdictions that recognize securities natively issued on a blockchain ledger.
Sygnum’s transactions will be settled in Swiss francs using Sygnum’s Digital CHF stablecoin.
This isn’t the first Andy Warhol artwork that has been tokenized. In 2021, Christie’s auctioned another artwork as an NFT. A couple of months ago, art blockchain startup the Artory registry, founded by a former Vice-Chair of Sotheby’s New York, launched a tokenized Art fund in conjunction with the art appraiser Winston.
