The reopening of the Royal Museum of the Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) posed a challenge to the museum. A renowned collection of classic and modern art without acquisition of new art would make the museum less attractive in the long run. The lack of a purchasing budget made the museum look for another way to finance to acquire new work. And found it in tokenisation, a blockchain solution to have 250 investors on board to buy a painting by James Ensor.
By IDEA Consult, Joost Heinsius
The reopening of the Royal Museum of the Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) posed a challenge. A renowned collection of classic and modern art without acquisition of new art would make it less attractive in the long run. The lack of a purchasing budget made the museum look for another way to finance to acquire new work. And found it in tokenisation, a blockchain solution, to have 250 investors on board to buy a painting by James Ensor.
The museum reopened in 2022 as the biggest museum in Flanders, the Flemish part of Belgium, with a worldwide-renowned collection of classical and modern art. The subsidies and the ticket revenues cover the running costs of the museum, but do not allow purchasing new works and innovation. As part of their financing mix, the museum set up a sophisticated system of attracting friends, donors, and sponsors which yield a substantial revenue.
However, they also come with efforts and costs to maintain the quality of the relationship and to ensure a structural bond. To innovate and expand their financial mix, they partnered with a new platform, Rubey, that allows people to invest in cultural icons which will be publicly shown instead of privately stored.
The Antwerp museum has the largest collection in the world of James Ensor paintings and was programming a large show of his paintings. There was a painting up for sale, Carnaval de Binche, which was a valuable addition to the collection. Through the Rubey platform investors acquire a part (a digital token stored in a blockchain) of the painting.
Unlike NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens) or Bitcoin, these Art Security Tokens function completely within the existing financial regulations and have the same legal protection as stock or bonds. Two hundred and fifty investors took care of the 1.4 million € required to buy the Ensor painting, with a minimum investment of €250 per person. There were also investors who put up €100.000. The painting has been on loan to the museum without costs, except for the regular insurance.
The duration of the loan is 10 years, after that period, the painting will be sold. If the painting is sold for more than the purchase price, the profit goes to the investors, but they also risk losing money if the selling price is lower.
Many cultural institutions are facing the same challenges: the amount of cultural subsidies do not follow rising costs and inflation. On the contrary, there is a real threat of budget cuts. This calls for innovation in the way e.g. museums are run and financed.
Carmen Willems, the director of the museum, stresses the need for cultural entrepreneurship and financial innovation to maintain their position and grow. Risk taking is part of that view. Although, according to director Carmen Willems, the risks for this acquisition were limited: the museum already has a large collection of Ensor paintings and failure might mean a small denture in their reputation.
Tokenisation of paintings or other cultural icons is a great combination of private money investments and public exhibition. Investors with a cultural interest contribute to cultural relevance and at the same time form a valuable community for a museum with possible future impact. Of course, the museum has to invest in the relationship, but it also leads to new sponsors and new members of the business club, says Carmen Willems.
The project has been successful, so the museum is now planning for another tokenisation project on the same Rubey platform, as a specific solution for the shortage of an acquisition budget. This solution cannot be used for any acquisition, essential conditions are a hiatus in the collection, availability of the wanted object, a reasonable price and expecting enough interested private investors.
An important lesson is that innovation pays off: a form of tokenisation in the cultural sector is possible, which supports the public arts sector. It also shows it is possible to attract private investors who are interested in the cultural sector, want to contribute and be part of a community, and are not looking for a short term profit.
Images: Courtesy of the Museum of the Fine Arts Antwerp, Public Domain, CC-BY-2.3.4.0:
- Image 1 - Gevel - perspective of the Royal Museum of the Fine Arts Antwerp © Sigrid Spinnox
- Image 2 - Ensor - inside the Gallery © Fille Roelants
- Image 3 - Portrait of Carmen Willems © Sanne de Block
This Case Study was created under Creative FLIP, an EU co-funded project aimed at further increasing the long-term resilience of the CCSI in key areas such as Finance, Finance, Learning, Working Conditions, Innovation & Intellectual Property Rights.
Key Takeaways
Carmen Willems, director of the Royal Museum of the Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA). After a major reconstruction the museum reopened in 2022. A lack of budget for purchasing new art objects made them look for new ways of acquiring an art work.
