Picasso Family Clarifies No NFT Is Set To Be Sold In Auction

It turns out Pablo Picasso won’t be making a jump into the digital age. After Picasso’s granddaughter, Marina Picasso, and her son, Florian Picasso, announced that they would be selling 1,010 NFTs — or non-fungible tokens — of his never-before-seen ceramic work, lawyers for the family clarified the heirs hadn’t authorized the launch of any such asset.

The two previously sat down for an interview to offer a glimpse of the artwork a week before its planned launch. The brief look showed the underside of a grey ceramic bowl, splattered with green and yellow markings with “58” written on the base.

The 71-year-old Marina received one-fifth of Picasso’s art and La Californie villa following his passing. One of eight grandchildren the artist had, Marina said that the 58 dates back to October 1958, when she was a child. She shared some thoughts on the piece, and what it represents to her.

“It’s a work that represents a face, and it’s very expressive. It’s joyful, happy. It represents life. It’s one of those objects that have been part of our life, our intimate lives — my life with my children.”

“We’re trying to build a bridge between the NFT world and the fine art world,” Florian explained to the Associated Press, noting they chose the specific piece because it was a “fun one” to start with.

Despite the family’s enthusiasm, there was clear confusion right away. Florian’s manager, Cyril Noterman, told the AP that the auction would be held at Sotheby’s, but a spokesperson for the fine arts company clarified no sale would be taking place.

Noterman — who stated they should have been more clear from the start — said that the more than 1,000 NFTs going up for sale Friday were linked to Florian’s artwork, not Picasso’s. Florian had previously spoken about how the planned NFTs would have honored his grandfather and fit within his legacy, and never seemed to imply they were his own doing.

Jean-Jacques Neuer, the Picasso administration’s lawyer, stated that any NFT of Florian’s work was his own creation, “independent of any claim vis-a-vis Pablo Picasso and his works.” Neuer added any NFT associated with Picasso would be a counterfeit and violate “artistic monopoly.”

The Picasso administration manages the holdings of Picasso’s three children — Maya Widmaier Picasso, Claude Ruiz Picasso, and Paloma Ruiz Picasso — and two grandchildren, Marina and Bernard Ruiz Picasso. Neuer said that the only person who could authorize an NFT is Claude, who doesn’t share the same feelings on the digital marketplace as Marina and Florian do.

Picasso’s family would have attempted to ride the fad that all but has a stranglehold on the crypto community. Artists have netted quite the bounties with their work – on Dec. 2 last year, Pak’s “The Merge” became the highest-selling NFT to date, selling to a combined 30,000 collectors for $91.8 million.

Meanwhile, Mike Winkelmann — known professionally as “Beeple” — has seen several of his pieces go for multi millions of dollars, like “Everydays: the First 500 Days” ($69.3 million), “HUMAN ONE” ($28.9 million), and “Crossroad” ($6.6 million).

It wouldn’t have been the first time an NFT reminisced back to the past, either. Mintable, a marketplace, auctioned off a 20th-century avant-garde piece, “Abstract Composition,” by Russian-French painter and sculptor Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine in March.

Baranoff-Rossine’s piece, autographed and still in its original frame, was sent to the buyer along with a NFT authentication certificate. Nine digital NFTs based on his work were also sold.

Any authentic Picasso NFT would have surely brought in a sizeable compensation. Last year, eleven of Picasso’s pieces totaled nearly $110 million at a Sotheby’s auction. “Woman in a Red-Orange Beret” — which features Picasso’s lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter — went for $40.5 million, while self-portrait “Homme et Enfant” was snatched for $24.4 million.