This portable Shrine of Gilt-bronze Buddha Triad dates to the 11th or 12th century.
K-Auction
Cryptocurrency-based decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are quickly becoming the new way to raise funds in a hurry. The latest example of crypto’s answer to crowdfunding currently has an offer in to buy one of South Korea’s national treasures.
In the past week Heritage DAO was spun up and quickly amassed over $1.5 million worth of Ethereum in a bid to purchase a pair of bronze sculptures dating as far back as the year 563.
Heritage DAO is a subDAO of Crayon.Finance, which describes itself as a DAO-based NFT finance platform that provides financial instruments for NFT holders and collectors. The effort lists Animoca Brands, Brinc and Randi Zuckerberg among its backers.
The pieces were set to be auctioned off by the financially struggling Kansong Art Museum in Seoul on Thursday, with bids starting at over $2 million. When the precious artifacts garnered no offers, representatives from the DAO reached out to negotiate a purchase.
“We would love to purchase the National Treasure Number 73 with whatever we have raised so far in a private deal to be struck with Kansong Art museum facilitated by the auction house,” explained Leon Kim, Crayon CEO and co-founder. “Also, we let them know of our intention to have the physical treasure under the custody of either Kansong or National Art Museum of Korea for the public to access.”
National treasure 73 is a portable Shrine of Gilt-bronze Buddha Triad that dates to the 11th or 12th century.
Kim says that Heritage DAO and Crayon will offer fractional ownership of up to 49 percent of the antiquities “and IP-based derivatives of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).” This could include digital items for gaming, virtual estates or in-game quests around the national treasures.
He adds that creating NFTs tied to national treasures that cannot leave the country’s borders and require specific care and oversight can help provide actual fair market value.
“Nobody wants to buy them – it’s not like you can keep it in your house,” he explained. “We are bring(ing) them out to global liquidity with the physical asset staying wherever it was… NFTs have no borders.”
Heritage DAO raised its funds using Juicebox, the same platform used by ConstitutionDAO in an effort to buy a historic copy of the US Constitution at auction.
While the national treasures auction has now passed, Kim said the fundraise will remain open for a bit longer to cover additional costs and potential restoration of the artifacts.
“Also, we are not a single-purpose DAO like ConstitutionDAO. Anyone can float a proposal… to target the next heritage (item) and we will open up the Juicebox or just code the contracts similar to Juicebox ourselves to do another raise.”
Kim says the whole experience has made for one long week.
“Many of us just stayed up in the office sleeping whenever they can for couple of hours. But, we are very excited to move things forward each minute.”
He says he hopes to have an answer on a possible deal with the museum by Monday.
