The British Museum is partnering with the Ethereum-based metaverse game, The Sandbox, to create a range of NFT digital collectibles in association with its licensing partner, French startup LaCollection.
A representative from The British Museum added that the institution was eager to explore “new and innovative ways of sharing its collection and reaching new audiences.”
“We are very excited to collaborate with the British Museum to share its incredible collections with new audiences in the metaverse,” said Sebastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox.
“This is a great opportunity for The Sandbox players, regardless of where they are, to learn about and enjoy the amazing collections of human history, art, and culture in the British Museum,” he added.
The British Museum will also establish its own immersive space within The Sandbox’s online game world, joining modern cultural icons like Snoop Dogg, McDonald’s, Adidas, and Gucci.
This move is not the museum’s first foray into the Web3 space. It has previously collaborated with LaCollection for three NFT collections, starting with an auction of 200 digital postcards of works by Katsushika Hokusai in September 2021.
This was followed by an auction of 20 tokenized versions of works by British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner in spring 2022, which included the dramatic watercolor painting “A Storm (Shipwreck)” from 1823 and Japanese artist’s populist woodblock print “Under the Wave, Off Kanagawa, also known as “The Great Wave ” which he created in 1831.
Most recently, an NFT artwork was for sale, featuring 20 pen and chalk drawings from the British Museum’s collection by Venetian-born draftsman, Giambattista Piranesi.
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