New Delhi: The Belvedere Museum in the Austrian capital of Vienna is launching an NFT drop of one of the historical masterpieces it houses, in collaboration with NFT investment fund arteQ. Gustav Klimt's painting 'Der Kuss', or 'The Kiss', will be offered for sale in a limited number of digital excerpts, "just in time for Valentine's Day", the museum said.
The Kiss is known as the most famous depiction of a pair of lovers, and it is the centerpiece of the Belvedere's collection.
It will be specially implemented as an NFT project, the museum said in a news release.
A high-resolution digital copy of one of the world's most famous works of art will be divided into a 100x100 grid, which will result in "10,000 inimitable individual pieces" to be offered as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
The buying process began with a "whitelisting" phase on January 25 midnight, Central European Time. Those interested can register to purchase the NFT on thekiss.art, where the painting can be viewed in its entirety.
Buyers will receive authorisation on February 9 to purchase minted NFTs of a digital piece of The Kiss, and can complete their transaction from that date.
Minting is the process through which digital art becomes part of the blockchain. It is this imprinting that guarantees each NFT is forgery-proof.
The NFT drop, or official release of the digital asset, will take place on February 14, which is celebrated as Valentine's Day.
The website said the buyers will get an option to dedicate the piece to their loved ones, and may even leave a special message.