Chinese-American couple gifts $125mn top NY\’s Met; that 1st record-breaking NFT goes \”public\”

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

Who are Chinese-American couple that gave the Met US$125 million?  

A Chinese-American couple have donated a record US$125 million to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to renovate the space that houses its collection of modern and contemporary art. The donation by Oscar Tang, son of Hong Kong’s late “Textile Tycoon” Tang Ping-yuan, and his wife, archaeologist Agnes Hsu-Tang, is the largest capital gift the Met – one of New York’s biggest tourist attractions – has received in its 151-year history. In return, the newly renovated space will bear their names, the museum said. Oscar Tang, 83, a retired New York financier, has a long family association with Hong Kong. His father was among a large group of wealthy industrialists who moved to the then British colony from the Shanghai region just before the Communists took power in China in 1949. Hsu-Tang is a respected academic and international cultural heritage policy adviser who is probably best known for presenting a number of television documentaries on Chinese historical sites and artefacts. The South China Morning Post tells you all about the development. 

MetaKovan paid $69.3 mn for Beeple’s NFT — so you can download it for free 

Vignesh Sundaresan, also known as MetaKovan, spent $69.3 million on a Beeple non-fungible token earlier this year, but he’s not very possessive about it. The beauty of an NFT is that everyone gets to enjoy it, the Indian cryptocurrency entrepreneur and investor said in an interview with Bloomberg News. In fact, he’d be happy if everyone downloaded a copy of “Everydays: the First 5000 Days.” The blockbuster price he paid helped bring attention to the burgeoning market for NFTs, which has exploded in popularity since then. Sundaresan speaks to Business Standard about property rights on NFTs, tokens, big-name series, DAOs and lots more. 

Banksy’s ‘Love Is in the Air’ to become 10,000 NFTs 

Loïc Gouzer, the ex-head of contemporary art at Christie’s is co-founder of Particle, a new NFT company that aims to fractionalize ownership of traditional artworks by converting them into sets of NFTs called Particles, thus allowing for potentially thousands of people to share ownership of certain works. Particle revealed on Wednesday that its first acquisition is Banksy’s Love Is in the Air (2005), which the team acquired for $12.9 million at auction. The work has been segmented into 10,000 NFTs, each representing a unique section of the painting. An initial offering of Love Is in the Air will begin January 10 and run through January 14, allowing collectors a chance to purchase a Particle of the work for about $1,500. ART News has more details on the exciting update. 

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