The rise of NFTs in 2021 has also led to an increased interest in the traditional art world. This, however, raised fundamental questions: Do the habits of NFT collectors also apply to art NFT collectors? Will art NFTs remain or disappear again? And what are the true motivations for collecting art NFTs?

In its second, “art NFT Collecting” edition, the ART+TECH Report has set out to answer these questions by looking beyond the general NFT hype and asked 306 international art and art NFT collectors about their personal motivations and experiences when buying and collecting art NFTs. The report has been published in April 2022.

MethodOLOGY

As framework of the ART+TECH Report | art NFT Collecting, 306 international art and art NFT collectors were surveyed about their personal buying experiences and collecting motivations with art NFTs.

The online survey was conducted between February and March 2022 (using the Typeform software). The total respondents represented an almost even split amongst those who identified as female (43%) or male (46%) and included a variety of age groups and collector profiles. Among the 306 respondents surveyed, 50% identified themselves as art NFT owners and form the basis for the following questions on art NFT collecting.

In this report, the term “art NFT” is used in distinction to NFTs and NFT collectibles.

All cited quotes are anonymous, unmodified comments from respondents taken from the online survey.

Gender (%)

Types of Art Collected (%)

NFT collecting experience in years (%)

Average price spent per art NFT in USD (%)

INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ART NFT

What does and does not make a good art NFT?*

From both a collector's as well as collectors-to-be perspective, the key ingredients for a good art NFT are very clear: First off, a strong artistic concept was the most valued aspect (88%). Neck and neck for second place were two other factors: 63% of respondents agreed that the inventive use of the blockchain technology was important and 62% agreed that it was important for the artwork to be available in a high-quality resolution. Surprisingly, it didn’t seem to make a difference if the artist was already well-established in the traditional art world. It was the lowest rated factor, with only 26% agreeing that it was important.

Among art NFT collectors in particular, the artistic concept and innovative use of blockchain technology scored even significantly higher than other factors at 93% and 73% respectively.

* combined responses by collectors and collectors-to-be

“Art NFTs are not simply a digital copy of an analogue artwork. This art form has to be thought of in a completely new way.”

What makes a good art NFT?*

Agree

Unsure

Disagree

Above all, it's about the ART

90% of collectors value art NFTs as artworks

Collectors clearly buy art NFTs because of the artwork. 90% of respondents said that appreciation of the art was the most important factor when purchasing art NFTs and a strong artistic concept the most important ingredient of a good art NFT. Unlike NFT collectibles, which often come with added value through incentives, art NFTs come primarily with an intrinsic value based on their aesthetic and artistic significance.

In the past, digital art has not always been taken seriously by the traditional art world, mainly due to its immateriality and other qualities that make the work hard to possess and monetize. Thanks to blockchain technology and the evolution of NFTs, digital art has finally received recognition as a valuable artistic medium and has fully arrived in the traditional art market.

“I believe that the NFT technology means a revolution for the real digital artists and digital arts.”

Art at the core of art NFTs

93%

Strong artistic concept

90%

Art appreciation

80%

Unique aspects of the technology

73%

Digital aesthetics

DIGITAL OWNERSHIP AS GAME CHANGER

For 71% officially owning an art NFT is a strong collecting motivation

Nearly three quarters of collectors said they were strongly motivated to own an art NFT by the prospect of a digital proof of ownership. Blockchain technology offers the potential to track an artwork’s origin and creator and can hence prove that a digital artwork is unique, which creates scarcity and value. Accordingly, two thirds of respondents rated the advent of decentralised certificates of authenticity, ownership and provenance as the most innovative change art NFTs introduce to the art-buying process.

Most respondents agree that, in the future, the concept of digital ownership will become even more relevant: 79% of the art NFT collectors believe in the potential of web3 and 65% of them plan to show their art NFTs in the metaverse.

“Having the ownership of a specific digital piece, is priceless.”

Top 3 innovations associated with art NFTs*

*mutliple answers possible

curation is key

Curation and exhibitions are the top reasons to buy more art NFTs

Many collectors confirmed that exhibitions which “inspire, educate and sell” would animate them to buy even more art NFTs, making it the top motivating factor overall. In close second was the desire for “more targeted curation and selection”.

Interestingly, the same factors were cited by most of those art collectors who hadn’t yet bought any art NFTs at all. Indeed, two-thirds of crypto-hesitant art collectors said that “more quality exhibitions” and “curation of art NFTs” might motivate them to finally start buying their first art NFT.

Judging by these results, actors in the art NFT space should emulate strategies that are commonplace in the traditional art world: organizing curated, high-quality art NFT exhibitions and situating artworks in their wider artistic context. However, trying to import practices from the traditional art-world will be challenging, as they collide with the crypto-centric ideals of decentralization and transparency. It will be interesting to see how the interests of the collectors will be preserved in this potential clash of cultures.

“Different platforms for different genres, personalisation and individualisation continue to matter.”

Motivations to buy more art NFTs

57%

Curated exhibitions

46%

Targeted curation and selection

Motivations to start buying art NFTs

65%

High profile exhibitions

56%

Curated selection

ART NFT COLLECTING
IS LESS DRIVEN BY SPECULATION

Only a quarter of art NFT collectors think return on investment is important

The potential for massive gains doesn’t seem to motivate art NFT collectors to any large degree. Only 28% said that the potential to make a profit was important when deciding what art NFT to buy.

For roughly half of the respondents (49%), art NFT collecting as such is neither about the return on investment (ROI) nor “diversifying an existing portfolio by investing in a new asset class”.

This contradicts the popular belief that NFT collecting is about pure speculation. While it may hold true for other types of NFT, it applies less to art NFTs. Nonetheless 39% of crypto-hesitant collectors said that they put off buying art NFTs for this reason.

It might seem that art NFTs aren’t as financially lucrative as collectible NFTs and don’t have as much utility. However, it’s the art itself that bestows an art NFT with its utility. And unlike mainstream NFTs, digital art relies on other forces to establish an artist’s oeuvre and reputation.

“Let’s talk less about investment and technology and focus on the art and the artistic concept behind it.”

Importance of profit potential
when buying art NFTs

25%

Important

75%

Not Important

community makes a big difference

60% of art NFT collectors are attracted by a sense of community

With many collectors investing small sums in digital artworks, art NFT owners become part of a community whose members stay connected — to each other and the artist. At 60%, a sense of community was an important motivating factor cited by art NFT collectors. For collectors, belonging to a community is becoming no less important than owning the artwork itself. It’s a kind of communal ownership that serves as a form of collective self expression.

Even the artists themselves value this aspect. 94% of them said that they collect the work of their peers in the digital artist community.

In the traditional art world, collecting is done in private, often one-to-one. Yet with art NFTs, it feels more natural to buy, share and enjoy them in public — on social media or in the metaverse. The transparency of most blockchains encourages this openness, thus collecting art NFTs is becoming a more communal experience.

“It allows buyers to form an emotional connection to a unique work of art, while also being part of a community of similarly-minded collectors who share ownership in a collection.”

Community matters (in %)

bringing art out of the wallet

Many collectors plan to show their art NFTs outside their wallet

Collectors have a strong desire to show their art NFTs in real life. 73% would like to show them digitally on an NFT display screen and 61% are planning to display physical reproductions of their art. Over one third of art NFT collectors would be motivated to buy more art NFTs if they had better options to display them at home, making this one of the top three buying motivations.

“Phygitality!”

When it comes to digital presentation, 65% of the collectors want to show their art NFTs in the metaverse, 63% plan an NFT exhibition of their own and 51% want to show their art NFTs in a virtual gallery or virtual museum.

“Nevertheless, the desire for a physical part of the artwork is learned and still very strong.”

How do you currently show your art NFTs?
And how do you plan to?

woman on the rise in the art nft space

More than a third of art NFT collectors are female

The crypto world and NFT space seem to have a strong male base and men still made up the majority of art NFT collectors in this survey. However, given that 34% of the surveyed NFT owners and 35% of art NFT collectors are women, it’s evident that art NFTs are not just another fad for crypto bros. Out of the surveyed female collectors, 93% of those with wider NFT experience owned art NFTs. Interestingly, the individual collecting habits for men and women turn out to be almost identical.

45% of women also said they plan to buy even more art NFTs throughout the next 12 months than last year, which was a slightly higher percentage than the men.

In summary, we can be certain that female art NFT collectors are on the rise and the art NFT space is indeed becoming more female.

“No bias, please!”

Art NFTs aren‘t for crypto bros

34%

of women owning NFTs

35%

of women owning art NFTs

the future looks bright

76% of all collectors plan to buy as many or even more art NFTs in 2022

Three quarters of all respondents said that, in the next 12 months, they plan to buy the same number of art NFTs as last year or even more. A higher percentage of women than men indicated that they would buy more in the near future (45% vs 43%).

According to 68% of the collectors surveyed, art NFTs will continue to increase in relevance in the near future, men being slightly more positive about this development (71%) than women (67%). Even art collectors who, up until now, have stayed away from the art NFT space, seem to agree (50%).

In other words: art NFTs are definitely here to stay!

“The possibility of truly digital art will play a foundational role in all sorts of virtual worlds (web3) that people will increasingly spend their time in.”

Fine art NFTs are here to stay

76%

will buy the same or more art NFTs in 2022

68%

see the art NFT market increase significantly in 2022

DIGITAL