Gallery Hyundai paints new chapter with NFT

South Korea’s Gallery Hyundai paints a new future by incorporating NFT (non-fungible token.) 

The country’s first commercial art gallery announced the launch of a separate entity named AIT on Wednesday. Gallery Hyundai CEO Do Hyung-teh established the NFT enterprise that will specialize in launching an exchange, issuing digital art-focused NFTs, and overseeing the trade. 

The soft launch of the online platform dubbed ETNAH will come in May. After three months of trial run, ETNAH will be available to the general public in August.

“While it is hard to gauge the artistic value of most NFTs currently available in the market, we will introduce NFT versions of tried and true artworks,” said Do. 

In the impressive line up are a storytelling video on a famous piece by Kim Whanki, who was a pioneering abstract artist in the 1950s, and digital artworks that pay tribute to Lee Jung Seob’s famous oil painting dubbed "White Ox.” 

Negotiations on the use of the intellectual property rights have been completed with the late artists' respective foundations.

As it stands now, the NFT market for fine arts remains chaotic in South Korea, reflecting a global trend.

Buyers have difficulty finding out the basic information of the NFT artist whose artworks they are purchasing. Cryptocurrencies, which are used to make the purchase, fluctuate a lot in prices. Copyright disputes are also abundant in the industry.

AIT’s strategy is to instill a sense of order in the digital space by utilizing its solid foothold in the Korean fine arts arena. 

“We will work toward a regulation that will prohibit the trade of NFTs that infringe upon copyrights,” Do said. 

The NFT art pieces are nearly identical to digital artworks that exist in the physical world. As in the offline space, buyers can also purchase the items with credit cards. 

AIT is collaborating with industry heavyweights at home and abroad. 

HCN Co., an affiliate of the Hyundai Department Store Group, will assist with public relations, marketing, and investment. The blockchain arm of Kakao Corp. known as the Klaytn Foundation and former CFO of Binance Wei Zhou will build the blockchain infrastructure.

Industry insiders forecast K Auction, operated by Do's brother, to get involved in AIT's business down the road.

Its rival Seoul Auction was the first auction house to enter the NFT fine arts market. Last December, Shinsegae purchased 28 billion won ($23 million) worth of Seoul Auction shares to expand operations in NFT arts. 

Write to Soo-Young Seong at syoung@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.