As blockchain technology becomes further integrated within society, more and more emphasis is being put on its utility. Gone are the days of digital art collections commanding oversized prices, fading in favor of projects whose blockchain component provides some sort of practical use.

One blockchain project that’s poised to disrupt the traditional high-end art market is 10101.art (pronounced ten one-o-one art)—a platform that allows for the secured sale of timeless artworks from various countries and centuries by fragmenting ownership on-chain. The company works only with world-renown artists and their masterpieces. Their debut offering is Banksy’s iconic Turf War. Artwork from Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol is set to be launched at later dates.

The goal of the 10101 ecosystem is to bring the classic art market into the digital era, which aims to open opportunities for collectors who have previously been shut out. Paintings are digitally fractionalized so that people can co-own a “piece” of the painting, authenticating their physical ownership on the blockchain with a certificate that cannot be falsified.

“We have our blockchain platform where the initial sales and all the technical parts take place, and we also have a physical gallery in Dubai where all the paintings sold on our platform will be presented,” Alina Krot, project lead of 10101.art, said to me in a recent conversation. “We have art experts and art dealers on our team who check all paintings collectors and galleries offer to our project—the authenticity, the price history, and the condition of the work.”

Representatives from 10101 then go to the country where the painting is located during the deal’s initial discussion, and if everything checks out, the painting is brought to Dubai where it’s scanned and insured.

If the painting is put on sale on the 10101 platform, it is also put on display in the Dubai gallery. Currently, physical paintings in the 10101 collection are available for public viewing in DIFC Dubai’s Mondada Art Gallery, with more galleries set to open around the world in 2024.

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“We use fragmented ownership to create collective ownership of one painting,” Krot said. “People who purchase a digital fragment on our platform become real owners of the physical paintings—everything from Andy Warhol to Banksy to Pablo Picasso to Salvadore Dalí. These are the names already in our collection that we’ll reveal very soon.”

In this way, 10101 is focused on utilizing NFT’s authentication abilities versus simply displaying a cool looking digital collectible.

At initial sale, all pieces of a painting are listed at the same price, with collector’s specific NFT pieces being randomly generated. This means collectors won’t have a choice if they’re purchasing—for example—a ‘Mona Lisa’ eye or elbow.

“A shoulder is also amazing, but it’s not the eye,” Krot said. “This is what we expect will somehow influence the secondary market, where people might want to get all the pieces of an eye or another notable element of a painting into their collection.”

It remains to be seen whether or not collectors will gravitate toward “buying up” certain facets of a specific painting more than others—something 10101 anticipates will be driven and dictated by the subjective views of its collectors. Though one thing is for certain: If you own a fractionalized piece of—a Banksy, for example—you are certifiably part-owner of that physical Banksy painting.

In fact, it is possible for someone to own an entire painting through the fractionalized ownership system.

“We’re selling the real, physical paintings, so if someone buys all the NFTs of one painting, they can come to the gallery and take the painting home with all its documents,” Krot said. “Since trying to buy up each NFT for one painting can be unpredictable—you don’t know if all the owners will sell—we provide services where if you can afford an entire Banksy, you can contact us and we have the infrastructure to accommodate that desire.”

10101 also offers its collectors resources to help with insurance, initial sales and sales on the secondary market, with plans to implement DAO mechanics so that collective owners of the paintings can decide on the blockchain the fate of the paintings.

“We can propose different options for the collectors—or they can propose for themselves—ideas like whether to exhibit a painting in London, Paris, or Uganda,” Krot said. “Collectors could even vote to burn the physical painting if they wanted to and keep it in blockchain form forever.”

While the burning of valuable art might be a bit extreme, something more plausible Krot mentioned is the idea of collectors coming together to sell their shares of a painting to a specific owner, with all collectors taking a piece of the profit from the sale.

But when 10101 approached insurance companies and told them the owners of the paintings were going to be people all over the world but that they didn’t know who they were, the company was met with a lot of skepticism, especially from banks.

How can you sell valuable art to people you’ve never met?

“We faced many challenges regarding the sourcing of the art and the transportation of it,” Krot said. “We needed to explain to people at insurance companies what blockchain was and how it worked and show how we legally protect our owners and where the art is stored.”

Krot believes without onboarding insurance companies and banks to web3 and how it functions, 10101 would not be able to exist.

In this way, the company hopes to help onboard the next generation of web3 users through its platform, and in doing so, demonstrate the power of blockchain to be used as more than just a showcase for digital collectibles. Whether or not it catches on is anyone’s guess.

“Our project is not an NFT project as people used to think about NFTs, and it’s not how web3 community members have used NFT projects in the past,” Krot said. “We expect that to change as more people become aware of what we’re all about.”

lead image: Banksy’s Turf War