Summary

Watch our video summary (video is 7:58 long)

Project Overview

Maecenas is creating a decentralized art gallery, which is a blockchain-driven platform where shares of fine art are bought and sold.

Currently, only the rich can invest in expensive artwork because the price is high and it is difficult to obtain financing for the purchase.

On the platform, Maecenas divides artworks into fragments and users can invest and trade those shares. Users can now own a fragment of an artwork, whereas in the past they could not afford the whole painting or sculpture.

Users on the platform can also trade the shares between each other to create a liquid secondary market for those artworks. With Maecenas, artworks can be traded like stocks.

Currently, the artwork trading industry is inefficient. It is an old-fashioned, illiquid and often opaque market. Galleries typically go through a few reputable auction houses that charge huge fees — up to 25 percent. In contrast, Maecenas charges a flat fee of 2-6% for monetizing the artwork.

The tokens on the Maecenas platform represent legal ownership of the artwork by creating a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that owns the artwork. The linkage between tokens and ownership in the SPV is defined in the constitution of the company. This way, users can obtain legal rights of the artwork by obtaining tokens.

Since there is a cost associating with creating the SPV and sorting out the legal ownership, Maecenas will only list artworks with a minimal value of $500,000 and up to several million. Initially, Maecenas will mainly focus on Fine Art (paintings, sculptures, drawings) from the period 1840–1990.

Fractional owners cannot enjoy the artwork because it is not physically with the owners. However, there will be a leasing fee so that the investors are paid for use of the artwork in the gallery. The leasing fee is typically 2-3%, but it depends heavily on the type of artwork, the type of exhibition, etc.

Below is a flowchart of getting a piece of artwork listed and traded on the Maecenas platform: