DACS chief executive Gilane Tawadros predicts the future use of blockchain – effectively an online public ledger of payments and transactions that is nearly impossible to hack or forge – will help prevent illicit sales of artworks and ensure Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) dues are paid.
She told ATG: “It will help regulate the art market and open the door to create a fair market with a set of ethical protocols and standards.”
The predictions followed a new report, The Art Market 2.0, launched by DACS with the University of Oxford and The Alan Turing Institute.
Tawadros says the art market is “currently plagued by fraud, illicit business and tax evasion… If you are buying a work of art you need to know: is it actually by that artist? Does the person own it and have the right to sell it? Blockchain might not be a silver bullet, but it is a new idea about how economic activity can be organised.”
