PARIS, May 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Based on available data for the first quarter of 2022, Artprice by Artmarket.com can confirm that the art-NFT phenomenon has become a durable part of the global art market on all continents, with an acceleration in sales and transactions in the second quarter of this year, primarily in response to the implementation of a more favorable legislative framework in the United States.
In an article published in Le Monde on May 11, 2022: “The Art Market, despite a disastrous economic situation (editor’s note: all sectors combined), is extremely resilient”, says Guillaume Cerutti, Chief Executive Officer of Christie’s, who applauds the auction in New York on May 9, 2022 where a portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol becomes the most expensive 20th century painting in the world, reaching 195 million dollars and bought by the famous art dealer Larry Gagosian.
Artmarket.com confirms that the analysis of Q1 2022 shows solid growth and suggests an exceptional year 2022, despite the economic situation.
All of the art market’s market-makers – notably the bulk of the planet’s art auction operators – now have specialized NFT departments preparing cataloged and online sales on a permanent basis. Similarly, all the major museums and art galleries are creating and offering their own NFTs.
The digital art created in the 1980s is finally coming of age with over a billion art-NFT enthusiasts actively pursuing creations in this medium at prices that are now very accessible.
Artprice has already identified over 54,000 artists who are directly producing NFTs for their buying public, and this is only the very start of a major paradigm shift.
According to sociologists, art historians and analysts, we are in the midst of major evolution that will definitively modify the structure of the art market as it has developed since the 1950s. This change is clearly confirmed by Artprice’s art market analysts, particularly its econometricians.
In its various reports on the Art Market, Artmarket.com has always indicated that it is impossible to understand the exponential growth of the NFT market without understanding the technological background to their existence. This ‘history’ includes Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and their cultural origin in the Cypherpunk community (period of data encryption – type PGP – at the beginning of 1990s).
However, all players in the art-NFT market – OpenSea, Rarible, LooksRare, Nifty Gateway, Superare etc. – agree that the NFT revolution will ultimately take place in the Metaverse. In other words, it is illusory to envisage growth and a sustainable future for NFTs without the development of the Metaverse.
The Metaverse is a set of virtual worlds. The term is regularly used to describe the future version of the Internet where virtual, durable and shared spaces are accessible via 3D interaction.
Similarly, the Metaverse can be conceived as a set of virtual worlds connected to the Internet, which are perceived in augmented reality.
Experts from the financial, economic, scientific and academic spheres are unanimous in considering the Metaverse as the natural extension of the Internet (Web 3.0).
Ninety-five percent of the multinationals in Fortune’s Global 500 ranking have Metaverse projects under development.
These Metaverse projects now represent an economic and scientific equation that will either raise their business turnovers in a spectacular manner, or become a financial abyss, depending on the R&D choices they make.
While Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft have retained colossal budgets for writing and coding virtual worlds, certain groups, and in particular Artmarket.com, are taking a different route which should make it possible to radically reduce the development costs of their Metaverses and become operational relatively quickly.
Artprice by Artmarket.com’s principal and founding shareholder is Server Group, an Internet pioneer since 1987, but also one of the pioneers of CGI hardware and software as of 1985.
Server Group has owned a multitude of subsidiaries over the past 35 years and has acquired deep knowledge in the field of immersive video games and cinematic and televisual post-production. Appearing in the mid-1980s, the technologies in these areas are considered by the scientific community as the very first Metaverses.
Artmarket.com’s Metaverse project is built in its world-famous headquarters located in the heart of the Organe Contemporary Art Museum which manages La Demeure du Chaos, or the “Abode of Chaos” (as baptised by the New York Times).
This Metaverse is revolutionary because it minimizes production costs and times and is based on the knowledge acquired by the Server Group from video game multinationals and film and network producers over the past 35 years (Studio Lumiere999® Paris/NY).
An open-air Museum of Contemporary Art occupying nearly 9,000 square meters, the Abode of Chaos is a unique museum circuit designed from its origin as a large-scale ‘escape game’ with elements of augmented reality.
Among the nearly 6,300 distinct artworks there are 4,500 sculptures in raw steel – some weighing several hundred tons – as well as paintings, street art, engravings, installations, digital artworks and land artworks. The museum is equipped with a very powerful electronic network (optical fiber over 9000 m2, wifi 802.11ax, idO connected works of art, etc.).
The Abode of Chaos and the Contemporary Art Museum that hosts it receives 180,000 visitors a year, of whom 25% come from outside France.
Over the past 23 years the Abode of Chaos has been the subject of nearly 3,600 written and audiovisual press reports in 72 countries. It has also been exquisitely reflected in a major tome, Opus IX, a 504-page bilingual reference work that can be consulted free of charge online in PDF format as well as on the Issuu website, where it has been downloaded 37 million times (figure officially confirmed by a French HuissierSCP Mamet-Pons).
In the international press, the Abode of Chaos has been described as an ensemble of distinct Œuvres and as an unavoidable and unique “Factory” with a place in Art History as one of the most significant artistic projects of the early 21st century.
The Server Group and the Organe Museum have invested several million euros in this successful project, financed exclusively from equity capital after a solid IPO project (see Artmarket.com’s universal registration document filed with the AMF, chapter 3.2.23).
thierry Ehrmann – CEO and Founder of Server Group and Artprice by Artmarket.com – followed the example of major video game creators and film directors/producers to build the group’s Metaverse based on 25 years of world famous physical creations.
For the construction of its Metaverse, over the past three years Server Group has formed a number of alliances, notably with one of the main European spatial geometry groups, creating a European dream-team for 3D Design, Engineering, 3D Lab and Scanner Surveys.
Whereas Meta (formerly Facebook) is starting to build its Metaverse from scratch, Artmarket and Server Group is starting from the fundamental reality of 6,300 original art creations in reference to the contemporary art world – on a 9,000 m² site.
This history has given us a substantial head start, saving both time and money, because the approach is completely different when you have undeniable global recognition for nearly 25 years.
The technical specifications included the use/production of Faro Lidar 3D Scanner, Navis VLX, drones, Polygonal Ground Photogrammetry in a single reference and development system, and Augmented Intelligence processing to reveal the singular characteristics of the works and their architectural ‘formativity’.
Specialized spatial data engineers and surveyors scanned and digitized the 9000 m² of the Organe Contemporary Art Museum, including its multiple basements and elevations, and all of the 6,300 artworks. The result weighed 45 To and including the 27 years of post-production and digital production conducted by Server Group and its subsidiaries.
The Group’s Metaverse was therefore generated from a vast physical medium of which it is the both author and owner. This represents a huge asset in terms of intellectual property. Similarly, the explosion of avatars and the proliferation of virtual multitudes® are part of a narrative already written and scripted by thierry Ehrmann, and known throughout the world.
While this ultra high-tech industrial process involving geometricians and spatial data experts required three years of field work (taking advantage of the COVID period), this approach is very different from the interminable challenges facing Meta (Facebook) of building its Metaverse from lines of code.
To understand the route taken by Server Group and Artprice by Artmarket.com, an analogy can be made with a well-known video game publisher whose Metaverse – based in medieval times – was constructed via an extremely detailed 3D scanning of several existing medieval European cities.
The results of this work were excellent: with radically reduced production costs, top ranking in box office all over the world – its video game version substantially dwarfed its competitors positioned in the highly-prized ‘medieval’ segment.
It is essential to specify that Artprice by Artmarket.com’s Metaverse, whose head office is located in the heart of the Organe Contemporary Art Museum (which manages the Abode of Chaos) is practically complete. This work has required very substantial investments which have been entirely borne by Server Group and its subsidiaries and which have had no impact on Artmarket.com’s balance sheets.
Artprice by Artmarket.com’s founding shareholder is Server Group, which is still by far the largest shareholder with 30.16% of the capital and 45.78% of the voting rights (Ehrmann family not included). Server Group took the industrial risk of investing in its Metaverse based on its confidence in Artmarket.com after 25 years as World Leader in Art Market Information.
Under the regime of regulated agreements covered by Server Group at Artmarket.com, whose Metaverse project’s profitability will be assured by low user costs because the costs associated with its R&D, and production are infinitely lower than those facing the multinationals who have started coding their Metaverses from scratch. Moreover, their projects are still to be concluded.
Artmarket.com’s upcoming NFT Marketplace will have an undeniable competitive advantage because the principal existing NFT platforms are facing time constraints, financial constraints, but also copyright constraints. As a result they do not really have successful Metaverses and may well be tempted to join Artmarket.com’s metaverse. Artmarket.com which will aim to integrate them into its NFT Marketplace by providing them with its precious imprimatur.
Indeed, OpenSea, the world’s leading NFT platform, has itself declared that 80% of the primary issues of art NFTs are likely to affect the intellectual property rights of third parties. Faced with this observation, Opensea has announced it is considering solutions to counter this scourge and protect sellers and buyers. We firmly believe that the logical solution to this problem is the certification of the primary market by Artprice through its blockchain and its smart contracts.
It is precisely in the primary issue of art NFTs that Artprice by Artmarket.com can achieve an extremely substantial turnover and profit.
We are proud to say that Artprice by Artmarket.com is the only company in the global art market that can veritably ensure the certification of primary NFT drops, bearing in mind all the underlying parameters and associated data.
The ability to certify primary issues of art NFTs is based on Artmarket.com’s position as the global leader in art market information and as the owner and creator of databases containing a quarter of a century of art market data. This databank commands global respect and authority and is backed up by the world’s largest collection of notes, manuscripts and sales catalogs (going back to 1700) which guarantee the authenticity and historical credibility of its databases.
Lastly, the study report from Dynata, the world’s largest data platform for insights, activation and measurement, surveyed more than 62 million panelists and 4 billion insights (reactions from a consumer in the form of data) in 11 countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, China, Japan and Australia) and published its “New Experience Economy” report.
The report highlights a very favorable conclusion for Artmarket.com and for its Metaverse, and for its shareholders: 51% of respondents indicated that their favorite virtual (i.e. online) destination is a visit to a museum, an art gallery or an art exhibition.
With its Metaverse, which is the ultimate and unavoidable consequence of the NFT revolution, Artprice by Artmarket.com aims to be the most successful and highly competitive art NFT platform. Its Metaverse represents the assurance of an exponential and continuous growth of the art-NFT market. It will be accompanied by Artprice by Artmarket’s Blockchain and its smart contracts, thereby allowing a fair remuneration for artists in tendum with copyright societies such as ADAGP to which Artprice has long been one of the main contributors.
In addition, the long-standing registration of the artpricecoin.com DNS (.net .org…) and its trademarks demonstrates Artmarket.com’s overall strategy, which naturally includes the creation of a specific cryptocurrency after regulatory approvals.
The Artprice by Artmarket.com blockchain will mainly use Ethereum for its smart contracts but will remain open to payment in Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.
Artmarket and its Artprice department was founded in 1997 by its CEO, thierry Ehrmann. Artmarket and its Artprice department is controlled by Groupe Serveur, created in 1987.
Artmarket is a global player in the Art Market with, among other structures, its Artprice department, world leader in the accumulation, management and exploitation of historical and current art market information in databanks containing over 30 million indices and auction results, covering more than 770,000 artists.
Artprice by Artmarket, the world leader in information on the art market, has set itself the ambition through its Global Standardized Marketplace to be the world’s leading Fine Art NFT platform.
Artprice Images® allows unlimited access to the largest Art Market image bank in the world: no less than 180 million digital images of photographs or engraved reproductions of artworks from 1700 to the present day, commented by our art historians.
Artmarket with its Artprice department accumulates data on a permanent basis from 6300 Auction Houses and produces key Art Market information for the main press and media agencies (7,200 publications). Its 5.4 million (‘members log in’+social media) users have access to ads posted by other members, a network that today represents the leading Global Standardized Marketplace® to buy and sell artworks at a fixed or bid price (auctions regulated by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article L 321.3 of France’s Commercial Code).
Artmarket with its Artprice department, has been awarded the State label “Innovative Company” by the Public Investment Bank (BPI) (for the second time in November 2018 for a new period of 3 years) which is supporting the company in its project to consolidate its position as a global player in the market art.
Mogul Productions, the decentralized platform that seeks to promote NFTs and DeFi in the movies and entertainment sector, is going big on the move with a new partnership.
As announced on Friday, the firm has signed a major partnership with Trace Network Labs to help bring the movie experience to the metaverse.
Growth in the NFTs and Metaverse sector
Blockchain technology has completely changed the landscape when it comes to digital avatars, whose growth trajectory, to state the least, has been on an upward trajectory since the 70s.
Today, digital avatars and the non-fungible token (NFT) and metaverse space are shaping interactions virtually across every aspect of life.
According to an industry expert’s observationhighlighted by CoinJournal, “The metaverse will bring true value for digital assets, mainly in the form of NFTs. It will give people the ability to recreate themselves in any shape or form they would like and to reinvent their identity altogether. It will bring to life digital pets of all kinds.”
Mogul Productions and Trace Network want to drive the next level of growth in this sector through their partnership. Essentially, Mogul wants to bring the movie experience and movies to the metaverse.
Use NFTs to experience the Metaverse
Some of the most popular NFT collections in the world today have seen millions of dollars in sale volumes, with the creators of blockbusters such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and Azuki helping unlock a whole range of success stories.
Alongside this, there has been the steady drive towards the reality of the Metaverse, a virtual world where real-life humans can interact and do pretty much everything else via avatars.
While tech giants such as Meta Platforms, Apple Inc and Google are all working on delivering the metaverse, the entertainment space is already seeing events in the virtual world.
Mogul wants to use its partnership with Trace to help drive this to the next level, with NFTs at the heart of it. Notably, the platform wants to allow individuals to mint their own avatarsand use them in the metaverse to experience events such as film premieres.
The collaboration will also see Mogul’s Cinematic Metaverse expand to provide users with new features such as branded wearables and other Mogul products.
With these, users can unlock several exciting experiences, including access to exclusive “Behind The Scenes” events – all in the metaverse.
As a small but growing number of Indian users of the Metaverse– a virtual three-dimensional world that is termed as the next frontier of the internet–report cases of assault and sexual violation of their digital avatars, it is stoking consternation amongst legal experts confronted by new-age crimes that are not covered under existing laws.
Earlier this year, a young woman based in one of the country’s top metros sought legal recourse for what she termed as “violation” of her avatar on the virtual reality platform. But criminal and judicial systems in India, and even world over, are still not ready to handle the challenges thrown up by the Metaverse, according to lawyers being approached to handle such issues.
Avatars represent the virtual identity of individuals while on the Metaverse with all actions conducted through these digital representations.
“There is a need for a new legal framework,” said cyberlaw expert Pavan Duggal, who is a part of the Metaverse Law , a global body working towards bringing in common guidelines on how to manage such virtual conflicts.
Pointing out that “the current law doesn’t recognise (digital) avatars,” Duggal said the problem is exacerbated by the Metaverse being a “global ecosystem, which makes it hard to litigate.”
“Attribution of identity and jurisdiction are some of the challenges at present,” he added.
Discover the stories of your interest
While still at a nascent stage, there is rising interest in the virtual 3D platform that combines social interaction with virtual and augmented reality, allowing users to live different experiences virtually.
Gartner reports that 25% of people will spend an hour per day in the Metaverse by 2026 for work, shopping, education, and entertainment, while 30% of organisations will have products and services ready for metaverse. Late last year, Facebook renamed itself Meta Platforms and said that it would invest $10 billion in the business, given the huge potential it sees in the space. Several brands and individuals have started investing in buying land virtually and building their virtual worlds.
Goldman Sachs predicts the Metaverse market size will be worth $1-12 trillion, while not specifying a time period for the same.
This influx of activity is drawing brands and consumers to the virtual world and is also leading to instances of cyber bullying and harassment, as well as financial crime, point out industry experts.
Mukul Shrivastava, Partner, Forensics and Integrity Services, EY said “this is a very fragmented space with no centralised set up. Several of the platforms are not based in India so that makes it harder when trying to litigate.” he said.
The inability to apply the same regulations applicable to such crimes in the real world is a major challenge, as well. “In the case of non-economic crimes, you have to prove that you are connected to the avatar that was harmed in the virtual world,” said Abhishek Malhotra, founding partner of TMT Law Practice. And when it comes to financial or economic crimes, it is still a grey area since the foundation is cryptocurrency, which is still not legal in India.
Tech-based remedies
Noting that prevailing laws cannot be invoked to deal with virtual crimes of assault and molestation, Supreme Court advocate NS Nappinai said one must “look for remedies based on the mode and manner of commission of crimes.”
“ For instance, in a case of rape of an avatar on Metaverse, or even in an online game, whilst Section 376 IPC will not be applicable, other offences such as hacking and tampering with source codes and even publishing and transmission of obscene or sexually explicit content punishable under IT Act can be invoked,” she said.
However, the first step, is to take it up with the platform itself according to Nappinai who also runs the CyberSaathi Foundation,
Platforms strengthen screening
Rajat Ojha, Founder & CEO, Gamitronics, which runs the PartyNite metaverse platform said that they have set up predefined emotes and movements to ensure that the system is protected for any ‘physical or sexual’ gestures.
At a recent public event, PartyNite mandated users to undergo a KYC to go to a bar area, as it helps to associate digital identities with real world identities. “That gave us enough insights and adoption metrics and we are currently working on our learnings from that,” said Ojha.
Some Metaverse platforms offer built-in safety features like safe zones, or methods to not allow strangers within a certain radius of your avatar.
“At this moment, every public event has our policing, and we warn the person if an issue is raised. We have features to kick the offender out, but we know it’s not sufficient, so we focus a lot on letting our attendees know how to reach out to us and we then go case by case basis,” Gamitronic’s Ojha said.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity may be in person this year for the first time since 2019, but that hasn’t stopped brands and agencies from thinking virtual. Not only are some marketers making Cannes sessions available in virtual real estate platforms, but parties and activities outside of the normal programming are also being offered in the metaverse.
A common theme running through many of these activations is democratizing what has hitherto been an inaccessible event for many in the industry. The ticket price for Cannes is steep, not to mention fees for transportation and a hotel. But through virtual experiences, which can be accessed from anywhere using only a desktop or sometimes a mobile phone, more of adland can celebrate creativity in the industry.
Of course, not all the metaverse activations at Cannes are designed specifically with this goal in mind, yet the democratizing effect is still there. Marketers may be realizing that the virtual tools they use to reach consumers can also help them reach each other.
Here are some of the ways that marketers are activating in the metaverse during Cannes.
