FROM THE BLOCKCHAIN TO THE MUSEUMS: Sean Bonner Launches MuseumPunks To Keep Up With CryptoPunks In Major Art Institutions!

From the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami to, most recently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, CryptoPunks are becoming a staple of collections around the world, and now everyone can track exactly where Punks are being placed.

Over the weekend, notable NFT collector and co-author of CRYPTOPUNKS: FREE TO CLAIM, Sean Bonner, announced the launch of his new MuseumPunks website, which is dedicated to tracking the growing list of CryptoPunks that have found a home in the traditional art world.

“I just launched http://MuseumPunks.com as a sister site to http://BurnedPunks.com to help keep track of CryptoPunks in Museum collections. Data, lore, links and more. Enjoy!”

 

 

On the website, users can learn more about the 16 CryptoPunks that are either currently on display or held in institutional collections, with details including how each Punk arrived there, who (if anyone) donated it, its blockchain provenance, and a brief story behind the artwork.

 

For instance, CryptoPunk #3831 was originally claimed by Snowfro on June 12, 2017, and later donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on February 13, 2023.

 

“In early 2023, the anonymous collector Cozomo de' Medici donated 22 works to LACMA, in what would be the first and largest private collection of blockchain artworks to enter an American art museum,” Bonner wrote. “Alongside his famous CryptoPunk #3831 (which he still uses as his identity today) he donated works by 12 other artists including Dmitri Cherniak, Matt DesLauriers, and Monica Rizzoli.”

 

To Bonner, CryptoPunks entering museums is tangible proof that the art form has cultural significance and that NFTs aren’t a passing fad, but part of a modern day renaissance.

“Museums don’t create importance, they recognize it,” he wrote.  “In less than a decade, CryptoPunks moved from a forward-looking gallery show in Zürich to the kinds of institutions that define modern art for the public. That is not a small turn. It’s a signal that the conversation has changed, and that the gates are open for deeper institutional engagement. Curators take bigger chances. Exhibitions get smarter. Collections get broader. The work becomes harder to ignore, and easier to understand on its own terms. Museums don’t hand out meaning. They make meaning durable. When they acquire CryptoPunks, they’re not rubber-stamping a trend. They’re acknowledging that a native digital artwork, distributed through networks and owned through code, is part of the story art history now has to tell.”

Tonigh you can check out Bonner’s MuseumPunks website and explore the growing list of CryptoPunks on display around the world here: https://museumpunks.com

 

The Gazette will continue to follow CryptoPunks and NFTs at large as they make their way deeper into the traditional art world. Stay tuned for updates.