Verisart, a company that certifies art authenticity through blockchain technology, has raised $2.5 million to further expand its commercial art platform. Verify and track provenance of art In an Oct. 3 article by Techcrunch, it was announced that Verisart raised $2.5 million in seed financing led by Galaxy Digital EOS Fund, alongside investment firms Sinai Ventures and Rhodium. The funding will go toward expanding Verisart’s product and engineering team and will make it possible to launch a whole range of services aimed at artists, galleries and collectors. Verisart’s CEO Robert Norton said: “With this new round of funding, we’re able …

The blockchain-based art registry startup Artory has acquired auction house database Auction Club, according to a tweet from Artory on March 21. Auction Club is a subscription-only database containing sales information from more than 4,000 international auction houses. According to industry media outlet The Art Newspaper, the move is set to make Auction Club’s sales data — reportedly gathered from around 250 businesses in 40 countries — public for the first time. The data will be available in Artory’s registry beginning in May, the report states. Artory’s CEO, Nanne Dekking — formerly the vice chairman of Sotheby’s New York — …

The prestigious State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia, is launching a blockchain-based art patronage scheme, Russian news agency TASS reports Nov. 15. The project, dubbed “My Tretyakov,” allows individuals or enterprises to make a private donation to contribute to the digitization of an item from the gallery’s collection, thereby becoming the artwork’s patron. The system, developed with business innovation collective RDI Digital, uses blockchain technology to assign and manage the patronage structure. According to a press statement from the gallery: "The donation amount is still under discussion. The system randomly selects which storage unit (electronic copy of an object of …