SINGAPORE, October 03, 2019 - Maecenas and Startbahn are pleased to announce they have entered into a global strategic partnership, combining Startbahn's ambitious industry-leading blockchain art network with Maecenas' blockchain technology tokenization platform.

The Maecenas-Startbahn partnership is a powerful alliance. Maecenas, with its fine art investment platform, is a pioneer and market leader in this new space. On the platform, artworks are fractionalized and sold via a secure blockchain-based platform, bringing greater transparency, liquidity and providing investment access to the fine art market.

What becomes possible through this partnership

Startbahn is actively building blockchain infrastructure to connect art market participants through what it calls Art Blockchain Network (ABN), an upcoming distributed network for art registration and evaluation. ABN is set to promote more efficient collaborations between companies and organizations within the art industry, and also allow new participants to join. By integrating Maecenas' tokenization platform into the network, artworks registered on ABN can be easily tokenized and distributed in a seamless manner. Its provenance will also be tracked on the blockchain, improving its standing and credibility in future sales.

Art owners who fractionalize and sell their artwork on Maecenas through ABN will further increase the liquidity of their artwork. ABN brings a robust pipeline of artworks, which will be smoothly integrated into the Maecenas platform, greatly increasing the number of tokenized offerings. ABN extensive catalogue includes works by world-renowned artists such as Kaws, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Banksy, Yayoi Kusama, and Takashi Murakami, amongst many other celebrated names.

New value for users

Fractional ownership issued in the form of asset tokens and blockchain provenance registered on ABN will replace antiquated provenance records and hard-to-verify certificates of ownership. This brings fine art into the internet age and revolutionizes a centuries-old industry, with a brand new paradigm.



To bring further foundational development to the art industry, the two companies are also working collaboratively on an arrangement for tokenized physical artworks to be stored and displayed in safe venues such as museums and large galleries.

This will allow investors and collectors to digitally trade fractional ownership in their artworks while at the same time bringing those artworks into public display, effectively creating a whole new experience for both art enthusiasts and professionals.

"We see this partnership as a fantastic opportunity to consolidate Maecenas' position as market leaders while at the same time adding immense value to Startbahn's ABN. It is truly a great synergy that will benefit all parties." said Marcelo Garcia Casil, CEO of Maecenas. "Startbahn has a strong base and network connections, especially in Japan, while Maecenas has geographic presence in Singapore, Hong Kong, and worldwide exposure in Europe and the United States. Joining forces with them makes absolute sense and is very strategic. We are proud to be founding members of ABN as we believe in the long-term value that it will create."

Through this alliance, Maecenas and Startbahn are aiming to further contribute to the art industry by realizing and disseminating a new distribution and evaluation system that utilizes the cutting-edge technology of today to its maximum benefit.

"ABN's vision is to become an infrastructure and contact point that connects art-related participants across the world. Therefore we focus on interoperability with every kind of art-related service worldwide." said Taihei Shii, CEO of Startbahn. "Maecenas is a leading art fractional ownership platform which already has track record of fractionalizing highly valued artworks and selling to investors, which leads to more democratized investment opportunities in the art world. This alliance is the first step in overseas collaboration that should be commemorated to realize that worldview. We are happy that through this partnership, we can provide higher liquidity opportunities for the artworks registered on ABN."

About Startbahn

Startbahn is developing Art Blockchain Network (ABN), a blockchain infrastructure for art certificates and provenance. Art Blockchain Network (ABN) enables all art-related stakeholders to share artwork provenance and to trade in safe manner. In addition to ownership proof and transfer, ABN also enables copyright contracts for artworks.

After the release on the testnet in October 2018, many artists, galleries, major art E-Commerce operators, and auction houses have already joined ABN. Based on the plentiful feedbacks from the partners, Startbahn has been continuously working on the fine-tuning of ABN's architecture, and will finally release the ABN whitepaper in October 2019, followed by a release on the mainnet.

Website: https://startbahn.jp/



About Maecenas

Maecenas is a decentralized art gallery auction market, aimed to democratize access to fine art. It is a blockchain-driven platform where fractionalized pieces of fine art are bought and sold. Maecenas uses blockchain technology to create tamper-proof digital certificates linked to pieces of art.

After launching its beta platform in June 2018, Maecenas has successfully tokenized a $5.6m painting by Andy Warhol, which was acquired by a number of different investors who participated in the first-ever decentralized Dutch auction for an art run on the Ethereum network.

Website: https://www.maecenas.co/





Tags: Art

Topics: Company updates, Partnerships