Museum of Modern Art in New York Adds CryptoPunks and Chromie Squiggle NFTs to Permanent Collection

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, U.S., has included on-chain artworks based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in its permanent collection.

According to The Block on the 21st (local time), MoMA added eight CryptoPunks and eight Chromie Squiggles, a total of 16 works, to its media and performance department's permanent collection. All of the works were acquired as donations rather than purchases, and will be managed alongside video art and experimental technology-based works. The works will be made public on the museum's official website.

The CryptoPunks added to the collection are #74, #2786, #3407, #4018, #5160, #5616, #7178, and #7899. Some of these were donated directly by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, co-founders of Larva Labs who created CryptoPunks, and other individual collectors and collecting organizations also participated.

The Chromie Squiggles were also acquired through community-based donations. Several NFT collectors and organizations, including SquiggleDAO, participated in the donations, and 1OF1 Art said it coordinated the overall donation process. The museum added that its curators actively collaborated during the process.

CryptoPunks, launched in 2017, is an NFT project that is historically significant because it was created before the Ethereum (ETH)-based ERC-721 standard was established. The project consists of a total of 10,000 pixel avatars and is regarded as the prototype of the profile picture (PFP)-centric NFT market.

Market observers interpret the acquisition decision as symbolically showing that on-chain art is being established as a genre of contemporary art rather than a temporary trend. In particular, because a world-renowned modern art museum has included NFT works in its official collection, it is seen as an expansion of the fusion of digital assets and art into institutional cultural spheres.