"NOT FOR SALE. FOR THE CULTURE.": Eight Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Are Heading To The Los Angeles County Museum Of Art's Historic Collection!

Things were anything but boring in the world of fine art on Friday after Yuga Labs announced that four Bored Apes and four Mutant Apes are joining the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's collection of approximately 155,000 works spanning 6,000 years of history!

From prehistoric pottery to pixelated primates, these eight Apes are officially cultural relics as the LACMA welcome them alongside more than 200 works of digital art through a landmark donation!

“Bored Ape Yacht Club is joining  @LACMA as part of a landmark gift of 200+ works spanning the history of digital art,” Yuga Labs announced. “Eight BAYC and MAYC NFTs were donated through  @DigitalArtMove , an initiative originally approved and funded by the ApeCoin DAO. Congrats to everyone involved.”

 

 

As the Gazette previously reported, the now defunct ApeCoin DAO voted to allocate 11 million $Ape to MachiBigBrother’s Digital Art Movement in September 2023. The goal of this AIP was threefold. First, to purchase NFTs, second, to create a staking mechanism that gives the community the chance to own and control the collection, and third, to work with museums, galleries, and schools to get Bored Apes and other digital assets placed in exhibits around the world. Today the project holds 117 Bored Apes, 20 Mutants, and many more NFTs.

 

“Digital art remains underrepresented in the art world, I want to change this,” MachiBigBrother wrote in his DAM proposal back in 2023.

 

 

This donation comes as part of a broader initiative involving LACMA's Digital Leaders group, whose members include some familiar faces from around the swamp and the wider Web3 art world! Among those involved are BAYC members and Kenetic Capital's Jehan Chu and Jeannie Vu, Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge, notable CryptoPunk collector and artist BeautyAndPunk, The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget, and Beeple!

 

“Have been spending a lot of time working as a part of @LACMA digital leadership group and very happy to share... bayc, mayc, and more than 200 works represent the initial donation with works that explore the intersection of art and technology,” Figge tweeted. “This initiative will further expand the museum’s role in shaping scholarship and discourse around digital culture, and aiming to become one of the most comprehensive collection of digital art in the world.”

 

And the Apes aren't the only familiar faces making their way into the museum's digital art collection! This donation also includes a TwelveFold NFT from Yuga Labs, a CryptoPunk, and pieces by notable digital artists Tyler Hobbs, Beeple, Dmitri Cherniak, and more, reinforcing what many onchain collectors have believed for years: NFTs are art, and Bored Apes are culture!

 

"Digital art belongs within the long arc of art history, not apart from it," LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan said in a press release. "With LDL's generosity and leadership, we are building a collection that traces a trajectory of digital arts, launching us toward an innovative future where we can connect digital art to the art of every era and culture represented in our galleries."

 

The Gazette will continue to follow this historic announcement and will let you know when and how visitors can view these Apes, along with the other digital artworks, at LACMA. Stay tuned for updates!