Digital Basel, an online platform that sold NFTs and claimed to be associated with Art Basel, was shut down after it was sent a cease-and-desist letter from the art fair.
The platform marketed itself as the “digital twin” of Art Basel, the international event held annually in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong and Paris, as first reported by Artnews. Noah Horowitz, who previously headed the fair’s Americas departments, has been Art Basel’s CEO since November.
Digital Basel’s website, offline as of today (March 29), described itself as a “digital dimension” of Art Basel, “combining technology, curatorship, deal verification and introducing a new class of art resources.”
The platform featured a number of galleries exhibited by Art Basel on its website and offered non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or digital versions of original artworks for sale.
“This platform is in no way associated with or endorsed by Art Basel, and this is a clear case of trademark infringement that we are treating as a matter of the highest priority,” Art Basel said in an emailed statement, adding that it immediately notified its legal advisors when they learned of the site and subsequently issued a cease-and-desist letter.
The NFTs listed by Digital Basel included a reproduction by Georg Baselitz The Abgar headwhich the platform listed for $90,500. Meanwhile, Baselitz’s original painting was sold by Christie’s in 2015 for £242,500 ($289,000).
An increasing number of NFT copyright cases
Art Basel’s cease-and-desist letter follows a series of trademark and copyright issues regarding NFT companies. Earlier this year, Hermes won a trademark infringement case against the artist behind an NFT collection depicting digital versions of the company’s Birkin handbags. And Yuga Labs, the parent company of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, is currently suing an artist who made his own NFTs based on Bored Apes.
The now-closed Digital Basel platform, which offered visitors the opportunity to “explore Art Basel’s digital art”, additionally listed artists and works from a number of galleries that have exhibited at either Art Basel or Liste, a Swiss art fair. List did not respond to requests for comment.
Galleries not affiliated with either art fair were also offered the opportunity to showcase their work at Digital Basel for $199 a year.
“I can confirm that we had no connection to that platform,” said James Holland-Hibbert, an art dealer at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, a London gallery that has exhibited at Art Basel since 2020 and was listed on Digital Basel’s website.
Art Basel informed its exhibiting galleries about Digital Basel in a letter sent yesterday (March 28) warning that a fraudulent website was involved in copyright and trademark infringement.
“It is clear that this website also constitutes a serious violation of galleries’ and artists’ copyright and other intellectual property rights,” the letter said. “If your gallery or artists are listed on this website without your express consent, you may want to seek independent legal advice.”
Digital Basel could not be reached for comment.
