Swiss crypto bank Sygnum tokenises Picasso painting

Swiss-regulated crypto bank Sygnum tokenises Pablo Picasso’s Fillette au béret. Professional and institutional investors will be able to buy an ownership stake in the painting for 1,000 Swiss francs (~$1,088).

📢The oil painting «Fillette au béret» by Pablo #Picasso is now on the #blockchain! 🎨 In another world first, Sygnum Bank and @ArtemundiGroup have partnered to transform a masterpiece by Picasso into a tradeable, bank-grade security on the blockchain. ➡️ https://t.co/0QXWioRFWF

— Sygnum Bank (@sygnumofficial) July 15, 2021

Artemundi, an investment company specialising in artworks, has become Sygnum’s partner. It is responsible for the appraisal of the painting and its valuation.

According to the press release, this is the first instance of a regulated bank tokenising an artwork on the blockchain. Sygnum will issue 4,000 tokens, each backed by an ownership stake in the painting (Art Security Tokens, ASTs).

The minimum lot price will be 5,000 Swiss francs (~$5,436). Settlements will also be conducted in Swiss francs using Sygnum’s own stablecoin DCHF.

Sygnum emphasised that AST holders will co-own the painting — their rights will be recognised under Swiss law. Access to secondary trading of the tokens will be opened on the crypto-bank’s platform SygnEx.

The 1964 work Fillette au béret is valued at 4 million Swiss francs (~$4.35 million). In December 2016, at the Uppsala Auktionskammare evening sale, the painting went under the hammer for 21.4 million Swedish kronor (~$2.35 million at the rate then).

Earlier, Picasso’s Femme nue couchée au collier was acquired by Justin Sun, founder of TRON. He intends to turn the painting into an NFT.

Earlier in July, Sygnum expanded its range of services, opening clients’ access to Ethereum 2.0 staking.

Follow ForkLog news on Twitter.