Morrison Foerster and The Museum Barberini Co-host Panel on NFTs – Is This Art or Trash

BERLIN (September 24, 2022) – Morrison Foerster, a leading global law firm, together with Museum Barberini, co-hosted a high-profile panel session on “NFTs – Is This Art or Trash.” The panel took place at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany.

The panel session, attended by more than 100 guests from the art industry, was organized by Christiane Stuetzle, partner and Chair of Morrison Foerster’s Global Entertainment Practice and Dr. Ortrud Westheider, Director of the Museum Barberini.

After a word of welcome, in her introductory note, Dr. Ortrud Westheider referenced Conceptual Art of the 1970s and highlighted parallels with NFTs by referring to art dealer Seth Siegelaub, who required a 15% profit share to be paid to artists for each re-sale of an artwork, similar to what frequently is set forth under smart contracts in order to secure a fair share. The introductory note was followed by a keynote speech by Christiane Stuetzle on the legal basics of NFTs, noting that, as always in the digital world, new inventions, and business models pop up in the “Wild Digital West” without a legal framework being available at the beginning. She highlighted that the devil is in the details of the underlying smart contract and the user terms of NFTs and recommended: “NFT buyers should read the user terms carefully, as they will only acquire as many rights as are expressly set forth thereunder.”

The panel discussion then kicked off with Nanne Dekking, CEO and Founder of Artory. Dekking shared insights on how the market‑leading auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s are using NFT technology as a provenance research tool, and highlighted that “Artory works with respected art world institutions to ensure that only the most trusted information available is added to the blockchain.”

Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel, Director of the renowned Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, gave further insights into the blockchain technology used for NFTs and alerted the audience to the fact that, while the blockchain itself cannot be corrupted, the link from the NFT to the tokenized work, however, can and is thus the Achilles heel in the NFT technology. Anika Meier, curator and author, contributed insights into the variety of artists using NFT technology to reference their works, from German artist Alicia Kwade, who just minted her DNA on NFTs, to the celebrated star of AI Data Painting, Refik Anadol, who creates immersive worlds that are also minted on NFTs. The panel was presented by Christiane Stuetzle and Patricia Ernst, counsel at Morrison Foerster.

Following a lively discussion with all panelists and the audience, Christiane Stuetzle and Dr. Ortrud Westheider wrapped up the panel by concluding that NFTs are still in their infancy, but that they do offer some helpful opportunities even now, from self-executing fair shares for artists to art provenance documentation in the blockchain.

The panel discussion was followed by a reception with more than 100 high-profile guests from the art industry, using the opportunity to continue the dialogue and leverage the networking platform. The reception was followed by a visit to the Kunsthaus Minsk, which focuses on enabling dialogues between art and history and is another impressive entry by the Hasso Plattner Foundation, on the first day of its opening.