Avant-Garde Painting to Be Sold With NFT-Backed Proof of Provenance

A 20th-century avant-garde artwork is being auctioned later this month, with the buyer to receive a certificate of authenticity in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT).

According to a press release shared with CoinDesk on Wednesday, the auction is for a 1926 painting titled “Abstract Composition” by Ukraine-born Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine. The sale will take place on the Mark Cuban-backed NFT marketplace Mintable, which says it has been working closely with the artists family as part of a series of sales of his works.

The artwork will be sold in its original frame, signed by the artist and with the NFT certificate that digitally verifies the artworks provenance and authenticity using blockchain technology.

Additional sales, to be solely digital NFT representations of Baranoff-Rossines works, will be conducted via three auctions and six limited edition sales beginning March 25.

Mintable CEO Zach Burks told CoinDesk via email the artists grandson had reached out to Mintable a few months ago seeking to use NFTs as a means to digitize the family legacy.

Baranoff-Rossiné was a Ukrainian, Russian, and French painter, sculptor and inventor. He was part of the Cubo-Futurism movement before being swept up in Nazi persecution based on Jewish heritage which saw him transported to Auschwitz where he subsequently died.