Wikipedia Editors Have Voted Not To Classify NFTs As Art, Sparking ...

NFTs

Wikipedia Editors Have Voted Not to Classify NFTs as Art, Sparking Outrage in the Crypto Community

The editors chose not to include Beeple and Pak on the free encyclopedia’s list of the most expensive art sales by living artists.

Artnet News January 13, 2022 ShareShare This Article

Following a public debate, a group of Wikipedia editors has voted not to categorize NFTs as art—at least for now. 

The row began last month, according to the crypto news outlet Cointelegraph, when editors of a page dedicated to the most expensive art sales by living artists questioned whether examples such as Christie’s $69 million sale of Beeple’s Everydays, or Pak’s $91.8 million NFT “merge,” should make the list. (Jasper Johns and Damien Hirst currently top the ranking.) Their conversation quickly took a turn toward semantics, with debaters wondering whether NFTs constituted tokens or if they represented artworks themselves.

The best of Artnet News in your inbox.

Sign up for our daily newsletter.

• The best of Artnet News in your inbox.

  Sign up for our daily newsletter. Please enter a valid email address Signup failed. Please try again later. You have successfully subscribed to Artnet News.

As is common for classification disputes on the free online encyclopedia, the question was put to a vote. Five out of six editors voted not to include NFTs on the list. (As of press time, the page on Wikipedia had not yet been updated.)

“Wikipedia really can’t be in the business of deciding what counts as art or not, which is why putting NFTs, art or not, in their own list makes things a lot simpler,” wrote one editor on the discussion page, echoing the prevailing sentiment of the nay voters.

The lone supporter, meanwhile, pointed to reports in credible media sources like the New York Times, which referred to Beeple as the “third-highest-selling artist alive” after his Christie’s sale. 

? Art Emergency!! ?

There is a debate happening rn on @Wikipedia that has the potential to * officially categorize NFTs as ‘not art’ on all of Wikipedia. *

Wikipedia is a global source of truth. Having NFTs categorized as ‘not art’ would be a disaster!

?:

— Duncan Cock Foster (@DCCockFoster) January 12, 2022

Though the vote occurred between just a half-dozen people, all volunteers, on a secondary page, the conversation epitomized a larger cultural debate around newfangled forms of digital art and their relationship to traditional modes of artistic production—and for this reason, people paid attention. 

The conclusion angered some in the crypto community, in particular. “Wikipedia works off of precedent. If NFTs are classified as ‘not art’ on this page, then they will be classified as ‘not art’ on the rest of Wikipedia,” wrote Duncan Cock Foster, a co-founder of the popular NFT platform Nifty Gateway, amid a long series of posts on Twitter. “Wikipedia is the global source of truth for many around the world. The stakes couldn’t be higher!”

Cock Foster followed up with a call to action, asking the NFT community to “rally and let the Wikipedia editors know that NFTs are, in fact, art!”

“Digital artists have been fighting for legitimacy their whole lives. We can’t let the Wikipedia editors set them back!” he wrote.

The issue is not closed for good, however. Following the vote, the Wikipedia editors agreed to revisit the conversation at a later date. 

Artnet News

The best of Artnet News in your inbox.

Sign up for our daily newsletter.

• The best of Artnet News in your inbox.

  Sign up for our daily newsletter. Please enter a valid email address Signup failed. Please try again later. You have successfully subscribed to Artnet News.

• Related Articles

  • 

    Auctions

    Sotheby’s Expected to Sell 104 CryptoPunks for a Record $30 Million. Instead, the Collection Was Pulled Just Before the Sale

    By Katya Kazakina, Feb 23, 2022

• Related Articles

  • 

    Auctions

    Sotheby’s Expected to Sell 104 CryptoPunks for a Record $30 Million. Instead, the Collection Was Pulled Just Before the Sale

    By Katya Kazakina, Feb 23, 2022

• The best of Artnet News in your inbox.

  Sign up for our daily newsletter. Please enter a valid email address Signup failed. Please try again later. You have successfully subscribed to Artnet News.

More Trending Stories

Artists

These 8 Artists Are Poised to Break Out in 2026

Art History

The Hidden Details in ‘Whistler’s Mother’ That Unlock Its Meaning

Art History

The Talking Heads Album Cover That Won Robert Rauschenberg a Grammy

Art Market Minute

4 Critical Pieces of Advice From Experts on How to Make It in the Art World

Artists These 8 Artists Are Poised to Break Out in 2026 Art History The Hidden Details in ‘Whistler’s Mother’ That Unlock Its Meaning Art History The Talking Heads Album Cover That Won Robert Rauschenberg a Grammy Art Market Minute 4 Critical Pieces of Advice From Experts on How to Make It in the Art World Previous Article

Museums & Institutions

The MFA Boston’s Sparkling New Dutch and Flemish Galleries Don’t Shy Away From the Big Political Question: Whose Golden Age Was It?

By Menachem Wecker, Jan 13, 2022

Next Article

Gallery Network

Spotlight: Tel Aviv Artist Orly Maiberg Obliterates Horizon Lines Through Her Abstract Landscapes

By Artnet Gallery Network, Jan 13, 2022

Load More