Yuga Labs wants to see more NFTs in museums. Its donating a CryptoPunk to a Miami museum to kick it off

The NFT, chosen to commemorate Miami’s area code, features a pixelated image of a woman with a blonde bob donning a virtual reality headset. The digital artwork is one of 10,000 NFTs in the CryptoPunks collection, which Yuga acquired from Larva Labs last year. 

Courtesy of Yuga Labs

Last week, CryptoPunks knocked off another Yuga Labs collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club, to regain its status as the most valuable NFT collection. Several CryptoPunks have sold for millions of dollars, and the cheapest NFT in the collection will set you back nearly $80,000.

Yuga’s donation to ICA Miami is the first in its Punks Legacy Project, which aims to donate and install several other CryptoPunks in contemporary art museums around the world. The company also will offer museums resources on Web3 education, crypto art history, crypto security, and NFT best practices, according to a statement published Tuesday.

“Just like how Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol drove a renaissance for contemporary art, I hope that CryptoPunks can lead that charge for NFTs,” said Noah Davis, Yuga Labs’ CryptoPunk brand lead.

Once confined to a niche corner of the internet, NFTs have gained prominence in popular culture over the past year following digital artist Beeple’s sale of an NFT at Christie’s auction house for $69 million last year. 

ICA Miami will add CryptoPunk #305 to its collection on Dec. 3 and it will remain viewable to visitors through the end of the year. The museum is one of the first to incorporate NFTs into its collection, last year receiving CryptoPunk #5293 from investor and trustee Eduardo Burillo. 

“ICA Miami’s collection reflects the art and ideas that define our present moment and drive forward cultural conversations,” ICA Miami Artistic Director Alex Gartenfeld said in the statement.