The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) announced recently that it would be selling off NFTs of some of the artworks it has in its collection. The idea of creating digital versions of some of its most famous works of art to sell came about when the museum's management team decided they need to fund a costly conservation programme for some of its paintings by the French impressionist, Edgar Degas. 

The team behind the digitised versions of the artworks said that the initiative would not be undertaken by the gallery alone. The project will consist of a partnership with LaCollection, a firm that has already generated numerous high-quality NFTs of physical artworks around the globe. The pastel works of art that have been chosen for the fundraising project were all created between 1860 and 1910 when the impressionist and post-impressionist movements were at their height in Europe. According to LaCollection, the digitised versions of these pieces will be available to bid for on the company's digital marketplace from July 14th.

The Museum of Fine Arts said that all of the money raised from the sales of NFTs will be devoted to the conservation of two paintings by Degas in the museum's possession. The first is Edmondo and Therese Morbilli, a portrait of a couple which was painted in 1865 or 1866. The other is entitled Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar. Painted sometime between 1869 and 1872, this image features a private banker named Auguste de Gas, Degas' father, listening carefully to the music of the Catalan singer, musician and composer. Both works require the attention of expert conservationists if they are to be brought back into the sort of condition that Degas would have known them to be in during his lifetime.

According to the museum, no fewer than 24 NFTs will be auctioned. The starting price for each digital image is set at $314.

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