NFTs Are Disrupting Fine Arts: Here’s What Risk Professionals Should Know

When Adrienne Reid heard that Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, sold a piece of his work at the art auction house Christie’s for $69 million, she didn’t think much of it.

Reid, a fine arts insurance broker and vice president with Aon/Huntington T. Block Insurance Agency, had witnessed many high-dollar art sales. It seemed like it was just par for the course for the industry.

The sale, which made Beeple among the top three most valuable living artists, wasn’t for any old digital piece. It was for an NFT, an electronic record of ownership for a digital item.

‘When I first heard about NFTs, I thought it was just another word for digital artwork,’ she said. ‘I had no idea how wrong I was on that.’

Reid was intrigued. She knew this technology had the potential to change how people buy and trade digital artworks. Given that the technology exists entirely within the digital realm, it would also bring new risks to the sector.