Non-Fungible Tokens
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When a collage of digital images was sold in New York earlier this year for £50 million, the art world was convulsed. The reason? The picture couldn't be hung on a wall and was only visible online.
What had been bought and sold was the non-fungible token - or NFT - relating to the collage. David Aaronovitch and his guests discover how NFTs work for those who sell and those who buy them and also consider if NFTs are a passing fad or an aspect of our culture that is becoming increasingly common and might lead to the emergence of a future John Constable or Tracy Emin, eventually spreading to and influencing other art forms.
Enter the Briefing Room and find out why collectors are investing in NFTs; how easy it is to spot a fake and what you can do about it; and whether non-fungibles will be an enduring part of the artistic - and investment - worlds in the years ahead.
Those taking part include: Georgina Adam of The Art Newspaper; investor in NFTs and co-founder and chief executive of the Arts and culture portal Vastari, Bernardine Bröcker Wieder; and the art historian, former art dealer and presenter of the BBC FOUR series, Britain's Lost Masterpieces, Bendor Grosvenor.
Producers Simon Coates and Bob Howard Editor Jasper Corbett
Image: Visitors to "Machine Hallucinations - Space: Metaverse" by Refik Anadol, which will be auctioned online as an NFT at Sothebys, at the Digital Art Fair, Hong Kong Credit: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.1 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
| 0:09.1 | The briefing room, 28 minutes in which you and I get the top experts to explain a big issue of the day. |
| 0:15.5 | This week, after cryptocurrencies come NFTs, non-fungible tokens, which some people think will revolutionise the art market. |
| 0:25.3 | What are NFTs? And would you want to buy one? |
| 0:33.6 | An artwork which you can't see unless you go online has sold for 50 million pounds in the first major auction of a piece which has no physical form. |
| 0:43.3 | The artist seemed pleased. |
| 0:45.3 | Oh my God! |
| 0:47.3 | 69 million! I think it probably means digital artist here to stay. |
| 0:53.3 | Remember, his work won't hang on a wall or sit on a plinth. think it probably means digital art is here to stay. |
| 0:57.9 | Remember, his work won't hang on a wall or sit on a plinth. |
| 0:59.5 | It's digital art. |
| 1:04.6 | And what makes it something that someone can buy, own or sell is an NFT. |
| 1:09.5 | And if you don't already know what NFTs are and how they work, and most of us don't, |
| 1:11.6 | it's probably time you've found out. |
| 1:17.7 | So, what's going on in the brave new world of NFTs and what does it mean for artists, |
| 1:19.8 | art lovers and speculators? |
| 1:22.8 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. First, what are NFTs? How do they work and how do they operate in the art market? |
| 1:35.5 | Georgina Adam is an editor at large at the art newspaper. Georgina Adam, what is an NFT? |
| 1:42.9 | NFT stands for non-fungible token. |
| 1:45.7 | And really, they were born out of the fact that there are so many things now that are |
| 1:49.7 | intangible. |
... |
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