NFT Influencer Cozomo de’ Medici Donates 22 Digital Artworks to LACMA

Pseudonymous non-fungible token (NFT) collector and influencer Cozomo de’ Medici announced on Monday that he is donating several of his digital artworks to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Comprised of 22 works by 13 artists, de’ Medici’s donation features one CryptoPunk from NFT collective Larva Labs, a piece from generative artist Dmitri Cherniak’s Ringers collection and art from artificial intelligence (AI) artist Claire Silver.

De’ Medici said in a Twitter thread that he hopes the donation will emphasize the significance of digital art as pieces sit next to works of legendary artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keefe and Andy Warhol.

“With this gift, my goal was to help bridge the worlds of on-chain art and contemporary art, which until now have separately existed,” said de’ Medici in a press release. “I’m thrilled to have these historically significant on-chain works contextualized beside many iconic works of art in LACMA’s collection.”

Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg foundation director, said he’s enthusiastic about how the donation will carry forward the museum’s emphasis on the intersection of art and technology.

“We’re grateful to Cozomo de’ Medici for his forward-thinking generosity that will expand the diversity of our art collection and propel us to develop new standards and techniques for preserving works created on the blockchain,” Govan said in a press release.

In recent weeks, NFTs have been moving away from their digital-native domains and into major physical art institutions.

Last week, NFT behemoth Yuga Labs donated a CryptoPunk to Paris’ Centre Pompidou, alongside Larva Labs’ donation of one of its iconic Autoglyph NFTs to the French museum. Yuga Labs’ donations are part of its Punks Legacy Project, which it kicked off in December with a CryptoPunk donation to the Miami Institute of Contemporary Art.

Meanwhile, NFT artist Refik Anadol is presenting his generative art at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for a temporary installation that runs until March 2023. Titled "Unsupervised," the generative artwork takes up an entire wall on the first floor of the museum.