Museum of Modern Art to buy NFTs with proceeds of $70M auction

MoMA to expand its digital footprint with NFTs?

A Wall Street Journal report says that The William S. Paley Foundation will auction off at least $70 million in art masterpieces. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York plans to buy its first NFTs with the proceeds of the auction.

The collection includes Pablo Picasso's 1919 "Guitar on a Table" as well as works by Renoir and Rodin. MoMA housed all of this since the CBS co-founder died in 1990.

On Tuesday, the foundation confirmed it had enlisted Sotheby's to auction off 29 of Paley's 81 pieces at MoMA.

The pandemic had been pretty rough on the museum. The museum wants to extend its digital presence by launching its own streaming channel and buying more art and possibly NFTs. A clever way to gain attention.

The museum has a team of people keeping tabs on the digital art market, and it is considering purchasing digital art connected to NFTs, says The museum's director, Glenn Lowry.

"We're conscious of the fact that we lend an imprimatur when we acquire pieces, but that doesn't mean we should avoid the domain," Lowry explains.

MoMA's streaming channel will host virtual exhibits and video chats with creators or collaborate with universities and course providers to offer online courses.

Although some of the collections are not for sale, the others are expected to fetch between $70 and $100 million.

Sotheby's expects Pablo Picasso's "Guitar on a Table" to fetch at least $20 million in New York in November and Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for the Portrait of Henrietta Moraes" to fetch at least $35 million in London in October.

South Korean Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Terra Co-Founder Do Kwon

According to a Wednesday Bloomberg story, a court in Seoul has issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, the CEO and creator of TerraForm Labs, due to an ongoing investigation into the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.

This year's crypto winter began with the collapse of the $40 billion Terra ecosystem and its algorithmic stablecoin (UST), and the warrant was issued four months after that.

As a result of the subsequent contagion, the value of digital assets fell by more than 50% from its peak, leading to the insolvency of cryptocurrency lenders Celsius Network and Voyager Digital.

Furthermore, Kwon reaffirmed his dedication to the Terra ecosystem and its newly introduced Terra cryptocurrency (LUNA). Over the last hour, the token has fallen more than 16.7%.

Google Cloud partners with Binance to Advance the Growth of Web3.

In an effort to foster the development of early-stage Web3 and blockchain firms, BNB Chain, a blockchain that is closely associated with the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, is collaborating with Google Cloud.

Projects using the BNB Chain now have access to Google Cloud infrastructure, allowing them to analyse on-chain data and encrypt data using Google Cloud. A BNB-focused accelerator programme will also provide "expedited access" to Google Cloud's startup support programme for about 150 projects.

This most recent partnership with BNB Chain comes in the wake of Google's advancing entry into the Web3 space. Google Cloud has already introduced its own dedicated Digital Assets Team earlier this year and expanded its crypto mining malware threat detection service.