Why FRESCO is important for the art market？
CONTENT
- Press
2.About FRESCO
3.Art Market and Its Problems
4.FRES Trust — Art Value Measuring System
5.FRES Edition — Multiples on Blockchain
6.FRESCO’s Solutions
7.FRESCO Competitors
8.FRESCO ICD
9.Summary
FRESCO News #1
Roy Huang (Co-Founder of FRESCO) will be speaking at Art Basel, organized by Forbes and New Art Academy
FRESCO will have a major presence at “Basel ArtTech + Blockchain Connect” conference, to be held on June 13 in Basel, Switzerland.
Organized by Forbes and New Academy of Art, “Basel ArtTech + Blockchain Connect” will include two panel discussions on the topics of “Art & Blockchain” and “Authentication & Tech” on Art Basel 2018. Chairman of the Board of TEFAF, Global Head of Digital Platforms of Art Basel, and senior reporter of Forbes will all join the conversation.
Roy is one of the youngest speakers ever at Art Basel and Forbes Live. From the early start of his being a collector and patron, he intends to bridge the communication between China and other cultures.
FRESCO News #2
Introducing FRESCO Art Award — The World’s First Blockchain Art Award
FRESCO & Elastos join forces to create FRESCO Art Award, the world’s first blockchain art award. With 500 ELA and 1,000,000 FRES offered to the winning artists (The FRESCO 5), we are creating one of the largest art prizes to discover talented artists at a global scale.
The art world has long been issuing awards to support the artistic creation, but most awards are being voted only by an exclusive committee. Instead of seeking comments from an influential critic or a mega gallery that may have a conflict of interest or a controversial judgment, FRESCO Art Award opens up the promotional channel for everyone. Each talent is recognized and supported by the public.
FRESCO News #3
FRES Edition: Prints & Multiples on Blockchain
FRES Edition is a digital asset offering system for the owner of artwork to issue multiple editions of artworks on blockchain.
FRESCO shatters the limitation of physical location and time with blockchain. Imagine each artist, gallery, auction house, collector, museum as a blockchain wallet, and each artwork created by an artist is essentially a data generated by this specific artist’s wallet, and can be transferred to the next wallet, then to the next and next. As long as you can verify this data is from a gallery or auction house confirming that it is indeed from their blockchain wallet, which is almost like calling up this gallery or auction house asking for a proof of ownership & authentication (provenance), it makes this data like a print or multiple work by the artists.
FRESCO News #4
FRESCO announces world’s first ICD
World’s very first blockchain projects going with ICD (Initial Coin Distribution), FRESCO decided to release 300 million FRESCO tokens (FRES) for free. Any applicant passing the 100-question art test with a score of 80 or above will receive 2,000 tokens. Within two months 150,000 art lovers will do the research and pass the test, which will make a public aesthetic education at an unprecedented scale.
Crowdfunding through ICO is not the optimal thing to do in today’s intricate and murky market, Crowdgiving through ICD is the way to go, only this way can we truly create value for blockchain community supporters, it should not be a trade of their valuable fiat or crypto gold asset.
FRESCO News #5
FRESCO: New Engagement Model For Art Fairs
If an art fair works with its galleries exhibitors to release FRES editions of artworks during the fair, the amount of foot traffic coming to the fair will increase tremendously. This will be extremely beneficial for large galleries, but more toward mid & small galleries, because with FRES Edition, they can liquidate the blockchain data of their artists’ physical artwork, generating extra revenue from not just fair goers who stumbled upon this artwork’s FRESCO label, but a global population that will see the release of FRES Editions on this particular artwork. Furthermore, with FRES Edition mid & small galleries are not solely carrying the necessary cost of promoting an artist, rather FRES Edition holders globally can add FRESCO tokens to that corresponding artist’s artwork, in hope to increase their own FRES Edition value but in the process, increased FRES Trust of the artist’s physical artwork.It’s a win-win situation, galleries now have more patrons globally, and patrons can directly promote the artist they love in hope to increase the attractiveness of their collections, let it be physical artworks or as FRES Editions.
FRESCO News #6
FRESCO and DSL Collection Reach A Global Strategic Partnership to Offer the Public Access To Art
DSL Collection is one of the major Chinese Contemporary Art collection in the world. It was created in 2005 by Sylvain and Dominique Levy. Today Karen Levy is also actively helping to build the collection. An essential goal for FRESCO and DSL is to expand the market through an extensive and effective art education, offering the incentive for people to learn and participate.To bring art to everyone also demands a groundbreaking engagement model. Visitors to museums, galleries, and art fairs will from now on substantially play a part in the story of art. An experienced pioneer to bring technology into art and a visionary leader to bring art to people, DSL Collection is here standing up to acknowledge the problems and actively seek for a solution. FRESCO, the first blockchain art asset network, is honored to align with DSL and together start this profound revolution.
FRESCO News #7
FRESCO and Elastos Reach A Global Strategic Partnership to Promote the Blockchain Digitalization of Art Assets
On April 25 2018, FRESCO and Elastos are pleased to announce a global strategic partnership. As the first blockchain art digital asset network in the world, FRESCO will become one of the first DApps in Elastos’ ecosystem. Both sides will cooperate closely in blockchain, smart contracts, and the construction of P2P networks, to create a new future for the development of the global art market. Fresco is delighted to work with Elastos side by side seeing the advent of the revolution in art and technology. Elastos was founded by Chen Rong and Han Feng, who’re pioneers in the global blockchain industry. It’s the first operating system that can pass blockchain’s credibility to user’s day-to-day scenes in the world. With blockchain as the credible foundation, combined with Elastos’ sandbox isolation mechanism and network isolation mechanism, digital assets can be identified, made scarce, trade-able and consumable so everyone can own digital assets and profit from it, in order to make the internet a smart economic-ecological sphere.
2. About FRESCO
FRESCO is the world’s first blockchain art asset network.
Through blockchain technology and Elastos’ operating system, FRESCO enables liquidation, promotion, and provenance of artworks at a global scale. As a decentralized blockchain platform, FRESCO creates an environment for the trade, research, archival, and management of artworks.
FRESCO mainly consists of FRES artwork trust value (FRES Trust) and FRES artwork blockchain digital copyright (FRES Edition). FRES Trust is a blockchain-based art value measurement system, Through the process of adding tokens to artworks, users can promote the artworks and establish an organic index of an artwork’s market and academic value. FRES Edition is a digital asset offering system for the owner of an artwork to issue multiple editions of artworks on blockchain. It allows people to invest in the art without actually holding a physical artwork, hence serves to expand the global art investment population. Users can engage, trade and liquidate the edition easily. FRES Edition can be displayed physically through 2D/3D printing, giving an opportunity for the collectors to enjoy and demonstrate that they are the owner of the edition.
3. Art Market and Its Problems
With the development of economy and the improvement of income level, people are paying more attention to the standard of living, with the consumption expenditures shift from daily needs to spiritual areas such as culture and entertainment. Art has aesthetics, historical significance, cultural heritage, and investment value, which are important for upgrading consumption and improving living qualities. When people visit a museum, and get inspired deeply by a masterpiece, do they ever wonder if there is a way to own a portion of that piece of art? Although museums own numerous artworks, many of them face financial difficulties due to the current operation system of relying on fundraising and sponsorship. In fact, many works shown at museums are purchasable through galleries, auction houses, etc. to collect or invest.
Despite being around for thousands of years, the art market only has a yearly transaction of $63.7B in 2018.
The market share for the art accounts for only 16.95% of the cryptocurrency, which was established 8 years ago.
Not to mention the lower percentage compare to real estate and stock markets.
If the art market transaction wants to expand from $63.7B to $637B or more, its has to increase the art population.
In order to prevent the art market from stagnating, we must to address the following issues：
- Obscure Provenance
- Centralized Promotion
- High Threshold of Art Purchase
- Lack of Liquidation
- Complicated Appraisal System
Problems #1 Obscure Provenance
Provenance in the art world refers to the chronological documentation of the ownership of an artwork.
In the art world, nothing other than provenance can prove the authenticity of artworks persuasively. If a person without provenance states that he owns an authentic work by Picasso, no one will believe him and his Picasso work won’t have value. On the other hand, if a 70-year-old collector with prestigious fame says that he owns a Picasso and provides the provenance tracking the journey of the artwork from the artist’s studio to its previous owner, then this piece of art will be a hit in the auction.
Even till today, provenance is mostly composed by one-sided words by collectors. Galleries & auction houses just offer a piece of paper or a line of text on website as the provenance for an artwork.
A more trustworthy provenance system is desperately needed.
Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” has attracted much attention. Its market price has jumped from only 45 pounds to a record of $450M in nearly 59 years. Apart from the investigation and certification of professional organizations, the coherence of the provenance and the reputation of its previous collectors are also important factors.
A market-renowned artwork needs a detailed provenance as its foundation, since the credits of previous collectors can guarantee the authenticity of the artworks.
Problem #2 Centralized Promotion
Currently, an artist needs to have support of a renowned art dealer or gallery in order to achieve the commercial success to carry over to museum exhibitions and significance in the art world.
However, the large dealers & galleries can only promote a few artists per year, leaving the majority of artists unable to make a living, which limits the scope of the art market.
Good artworks may not be sold at high prices. Rather, the works of the artists who are supported by a group of people with capital and promotion strategies will be sold at unimaginable prices.
The more one artist gets promoted, the more capitalization will happen behind the scene, which can eventually result in further freedom for the artist to practice art at his own wish.
This is the patronization of the arts, which exists from the beginning of the Renaissance. Collectors or galleries discovered a young artist and bought in a lots of his artworks at extremely low prices. Then they continuously promoted for the artist, establishing an artistic status for him, and profited from selling the assets they got from the artist.
Problem #3 High Threshold of Art Purchase
News media often report on the unbelievable expensive artwork in the auction, but barely mention the rest of the art market. In fact, galleries have a wider range of art lovers in both the primary and secondary markets.
However, gallery industry is not open to everyone. Currently, galleries in the mainstream market will conduct strict background checks on buyers, in particular for scarce and valuable works of art. Ordinary buyers usually have difficulty finding the purchasing channels, and a majority of artworks are bought by the most prestigious collectors.
On one hand, such mechanism maintains the basic rules of the art market. Art works usually flow within an extremely closed environment of collectors, galleries, dealers, and auction houses and artworks are thus properly preserved. On the other hand, strict audition also leads to limited the number of art purchasers, resulting in the little contact between general public and the art market, and sometimes misunderstanding or even conflict.
Broadening the purchase channels of art, popularizing the basic knowledge of the market, and lowering the threshold of entry would greatly expand the consumer population.
Jean Michael Basquiat
Flesh & Spirit, Oil on Canvas
1983, Initial Purchase Price：$15,000
2018, Auction Price：$30,000,000
Christopher Wool
Apocalypse Now, Oil on Canvas
1991, Initial Purchase Price：$7,000
2013, Auction Price：$26,485,000
A centralized promotion channel brings unimaginable returns to collectors who bought artworks of famous artists at world top galleries in earlier stage. At the same time, this practice helps to establish a remarkable status for certain artists in the art history. However, only people with tremendous amount of asset and verification from the gallery are able to buy these artworks.
Problem #4 Complicated Appraisal System
Art collection is a process of long-term cultural accumulation, and it is a product of combining market and academic environment. A classic works of art that has been circulated for centuries, containing only the cultural creativity developed by individual artists, marking the value of aesthetics, crafts, and art history contained in the works, the social and religious backgrounds on which they are created and circulated, public culture, memory and other comprehensive capabilities.
The experiences and stories of the artworks flowing in the hands of contemporary collectors often add a unique charm to the collection.
The price of artwork depends on many factors, including the medium, theme, size, condition of the work, artist’s popularity, exhibition records, publication records, reputation of the collectors, etc.
Since the value of artworks is hard to define, the prices are opaque, and the appraising power are centered in top collectors, public art lovers face great difficulties.
Problem #5 Lack of Liquidation
It’s an arduous process to liquidate one’s artwork into cash after purchasing it. The collector has to go through auction houses, arrange private sales, or consign to the galleries for negotiation. The average time of negotiation before selling a piece of artwork with over half a million dollars is 1–2 months. Some may last for over a year. During the period, galleries or auction houses will charge over 20% of commission. Not to mention the expensive fee for international transportation and long waiting period. With all these factors, it is difficult to liquidize artworks.
Art loans are also an option for collectors who need cash, but the process is also cumbersome, with strict requirements for the art collections. On the other hand, low-threshold loans usually result in high interest rates.
In general, the long period of liquidation, the complicated process, and high requirements of the market channel have become major limitation in expanding art population.
FRES Trust FRES Edition can efficiently solve all these problems.
4.FRES Trust-Art Value Measuring System
FRES Trust reflects the total value of trust allocated to an artwork by users on FRESCO.The amount of FRES Cash equals the sum of trust value (FRES Trust) they can distribute to the artwork.
FRES Trust is publicly visible and anonymous in identity. The distribution of the it is irrevocable and adds a unique index of trust value to the artwork. It reflects the comprehensive academic and market value of the artwork in the intricate art environment.
FRES Trust will be the only decentralized and reliable indicator of an artwork’s potential value.
Due to the various difficulties to directly measure the value of art collections, as well as the problem of price opacity and the overly-concentrated pricing power of top-level players, the art market tends to intimidate new investors and collectors, creating a social barrier to entry.
On the contrary, the indexing power of the FRES Trust, along with a future ecosystem to be created with this concept, will benefit every single user of the system including experienced gallerists, collectors, and art professionals.
FRES Trust is supported by a decentralized network that reflects the unique perspectives of collectors, gallerists, art academics, critics, and industry alike. It also reflects, more dynamically, art collectors’ expectations on the artistic value and future market value of their collection. Through FRES Trust, the concept of art trust value will be broadly recognized by art professionals and the general public.
5. FRES Edition-Multiples on Blockchain
FRES Edition is a digital-asset-offering system for the owner of an artwork to issue multiple editions of blockchain certificates. Each FRES Edition holder can gain profits from the appreciation of that edition when the FRES Trust of the original artwork increases.
The artwork’s owner decides the number of FRES Edition to issue based on their anticipation of the market potential. Once the FRES Editions are successfully issued, the number of the FRES Edition cannot be changed. Because FRES Edition is a blockchain certificate appearing only on FRESCO platform, resale of the artworks offline will not interfere with the number of the FRES Edition nor the appreciation of the FRES Edition. Each FRESCO user can buy more than one FRES Edition.
FRES Edition allows editions owners to actively promote the artwork and benefit from it directly. Each addition of FRES Cash to the artwork goes to its FRES Trust value. The value of each FRES Edition will simultaneously increase the dividend amount.
FRES Edition, each with a QR code, can be displayed physically through 3D printing. In this way, both the originality of the artworks and the value of holding FRES Edition are kept. The printed version of FRES Edition is a part of the masterpiece hang in the museum, way better than a souvenir.
6. FRESCO’s Solutions
FRESCO breaks through the centralized promotion channel of the arts and encourages the public to participate in publicizing the artists and their artworks. Artists, on the other hand, can directly issue FRES Trust to its potential collector, transiting the artistic information efficiently.
With all the operations and trading on the platform, FRESCO Protocol generates the digital provenance of all the artworks on the blockchain, allowing a large number of users to join the network.
FRES Trust and FRES Edition have made art investment easier than ever. Artworks owners can promote the arts through art trust while facilitating off-line deals. Or they can issue FRES Edition and liquidate the art trust to let the art investors and the public to engage in the artworks.
FRES Trust does speak for any individual’s assessment of approximate fair market value. Art investors no longer need to be experts who have in-depth knowledge about art and finance, which helps expand the art market to its potential customers.
In addition, the easy transaction and physical certificates of FRES Edition enable the users to enjoy the aesthetically of the artworks, benefit from the social network opportunities and gain some profits concurrently.
7. FRESCO Competitors
Currently, there are many blockchain projects focusing the art market, but they have hardly shaken the foundation of the art system. Instead of targeting at the generally acknowledged problems, FRESCO aims to change from the inside, by creating an ecosystem through the combination of FRES Trust and FRES Edition. FRESCO will promote the art and expand market shares efficiently, at the same time, solve the problems of obscure provenance.
Verisart and Codex protocol are two competitors who have received great attention, but both projects aim on working with collectors and galleries to share provenance on blockchain platform. However, this model lacks the incentive for the collectors and gallerists, who have to give up some privacy while gain no immediate profits. Thus, when the parties of the entire art network are not connected perfectly, such operation is questionable.
By creating an ecosystem through the combination of FRES Trust and FRES Edition, FRESCO encourages the owners of artworks to efficiently promote their assets by issuing FRES Edition, and liquidize the art trust after verifying the certificates. This model enables more art lovers to engage in the art investment by using FRES Trust as an index, which can expand the art market tremendously. Artists, galleries, museums and collectors all benefit from this model. In this way, owners of artwork are willing to upload their work under the incentive of efficient liquidation and promotion, and simultaneously build up a reliable network of provenance, solving the problems other competitors are facing.
8.FRESCO ICD
ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is a way for a new crypto currency venture to raise funds, but in today’s market, ICO community contributors are inevitably bleeding with financial loss. At the same time, ICO is facing challenges globally from government regulators, persisting on an ICO model will bring extreme uncertainty to the future of FRESCO. Thus, FRESCO designed ICD process, the Initial Coin Distribution.
FRESCO is launching the world’s first ICD, distributing 300 million FRESCO tokens to the global community free of charge. As a blockchain art digital asset network, we hope that our community is composed of passionate art lovers who want to see some changes in the art world with blockchain technology.
We designed FRESCO ICD process similar to an application to a members-only club, in this application one needs to fill out 100 questions focused on the art world and FRESCO’s concept and get more than 80 correct. During this process, we hope to let more art people know about FRESCO, and let more blockchain people know about art. The questions include artwork identification, art history terms, current art market price, FRESCO’s key features, and FRESCO’s impact on the art world and beyond.
We expect around 150,000 art lovers to do the research and pass the test within 2 months, which will make a public aesthetic education at an unprecedented scale. In the first seven days of ICD test, 27,000 people did their research and completed the test, and the number has been increasing since then.
9. Summary
In response to the current difficulties in the art industry, FRESCO will solve the problems directly and effectively with the existing blockchain technology, thereby expanding and optimizing the market, promoting transactions, providing the public with convenient and profitable art investment channels, and ensuring the benefits of all parties in the art industry.
Artists can conveniently promote their own works without being restricted by the centralized channels; museums can liquidize their collections and encourage public art education; galleries can verify their collectors, express confidence in the market of the artists, and introduce their values to the consumers; collectors can learn about artworks and promote their assets easily; and the public can get involved in the art investment, enhancing aesthetic skills while gaining profits at the same time.
As a Dapp operating on Elastos, FRESCO has strong technical support. The stable operations of the company with a short period of preparation make us stand out from countless blockchain projects that have come a long way. FRESCO plans to be officially launched in early 2019 and will bring significant innovation to the art market.
With clear prospects and free distribution of tokens during ICD process, FRESCO has now gathered a stable community of tens of thousands of people. Each participant had a basic understanding of the art market after completing the artistic test of 100 questions. FRESCO’s business model expands art population from traditional groups to all potential art lovers.
Base upon the current situation of the art market, FRESCO enables liquidation, promotion, and provenance of artworks at a global scale.
FRESCO ICD: http://fresco.work/icd
FRESCO Whitepaper: http://fresco.work/whitepaper
FRESCO Twitter: https://twitter.com/fresco_network
FRESCO Telegram Community Talk: https://t.me/fresco_community_talk
FRESCO Telegram Announcement Channel: https://t.me/fresco_network
