Even NYC’s Highfalutin Guggenheim Museum Is Looking at NFTs, Job Posting Suggests

One of New York City’s modern art meccas is preparing for a potential future of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to a new job posting. 

The Guggenheim Museum wants its next MBA intern to provide an evaluation of non-fungible token (NFT)-based art, which its administrators called a “nascent, fast-growing, highly scalable area of the art world.”

“How will blockchain and crypto currency [sic] change how a museum defines its collection strategy?” the posting mulls.

The Guggenheim is among the first traditional art museums to begin grappling with the NFT space amid the current market boom. A $69 million Christie’s auction of a Beeple NFT has caught the traditionally stuffy art scene by surprise. Sotheby’s, too, announced its intention to get more involved in the NFT space.

NFTs, which have been around for years, are a method for tracing and transferring digital ownership atop a blockchain network, most commonly Ethereum. They are the crypto world’s equivalent of an artist’s signature and a painting’s provenance.

“In what ways should the Guggenheim extend into a digital experience?” the posting asks of its applicants.

Detractors say NFT energy consumption is bad for the environment or argue the market is a bubble. Proponents claim NFTs democratize art and give creators space to market and profit. Guggenheim is more circumspect, fielding its own thoughts out to the interns.

The Guggenheim Museum did not respond to repeated CoinDesk inquiries.