<p><span style=""></span></p><p><span style=""></span></p><p>Ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong, CEO Bernadine Bröcker Wieder speaks about how the new company can meet the challenges of a global art world</p>

Brian Boucher

What’s next for the art world blockchain Arcual?

<p>When many people think of art and blockchain, they think of artists bypassing galleries to sell NFTs on platforms like OpenSea.</p><p>Bernadine Bröcker Wieder, CEO of Arcual, plans to change that. She describes the company, founded in 2022 by the LUMA Foundation and Art Basel’s parent company, MCH, as ‘a blockchain ecosystem by the art community, for the art community.’ </p><p>Arcual aims to serve many players in the art world, starting with galleries and the artists they represent, by using the blockchain (an inviolable online ledger) as a site to store information on the entire life of an artwork – of any medium – from its first sale to later resale, loans, and donation.&nbsp;Smart contracts will stipulate the galleries’ and the artists’ terms, including within sale agreements, outlining resale royalties – if any – and documenting any needed information on, for example, how the artwork should be shown and documented.</p>

<p>Developed with technology from Web3 experts BCG X, Arcual has over 30 employees and is onboarding as many as 15 galleries, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2244/High-Art">High Art</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1801/von-Bartha">von Bartha</a>. The first sale, of a painting by artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8072/Ra%C3%B9l-Cordero">Raúl Cordero</a> by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1194/Mai-36-Galerie">Mai 36 Galerie</a>, happened at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2022. (Arcual itself bought the work.)&nbsp;Illustrated in this article are artworks from galleries including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2622/Galerie-Mitterrand?lang=en" target="_blank">Galerie Mitterrand</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1237/Galerie-Nathalie-Obadia">Nathalie Obadia</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/8560/Commonwealth-and-Council">Commonwealth and Council</a>, who will be consigning works by artists such as&nbsp;Wallen Mapondera,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/9096/Fiona-Rae">Fiona Rae</a>, and Kenneth Tam,&nbsp;respectively, to be sold on Arcual’s blockchain platform during Art Basel Hong Kong this month.&nbsp;</p><p>Bröcker Wieder’s background unites art and tech. After attending art school, she cofounded and managed Trinity House, an Impressionist and Modern gallery in London; With the help of Microsoft Ventures (the software company’s venture capital fund), she then founded and led Vastari, an online facilitator of touring exhibitions that connected museums, lenders, and producers. While there, she co-organized Christie’s first Art + Tech Summit, ‘Exploring Blockchain.’</p><p>Bröcker Wieder spoke to Brian Boucher about the new company.</p>

<p><strong>What differentiates Arcual from other companies in the blockchain ecosystem? </strong></p><p>Arcual has developed over the course of three and a half years, after interviews with galleries, artists, and collectors to understand what their problems are and how to solve them. I think we have the best ingredients for success. </p><p>One differentiator is scale. You have a Swiss-listed public company and a major nonprofit philanthropist-collector putting their neck on the line and saying, ‘We believe in an art world future that looks like this.’ That’s coming from a deep base of art world knowledge. </p><p>In our system, the gallery and the artist attest to the artwork together as the basis of our digital certificate of authenticity. Moreover, our blockchain is private. We use the technology to encrypt and preserve the information, but Arcual can’t see it, Art Basel can’t see it, it’s all private by default. </p>

<p><strong>What makes Arcual appealing for galleries and artists? Should collectors and even museums support it?</strong></p><p>The art market is an increasingly global industry existing in far-flung places with complicated regulations. Our infrastructure helps galleries navigate that. Take away the blockchain bit, and it’s a system that helps small businesses solve problems raised by, for example, ‘Know Your Customer’ laws. </p><p>For the gallery, we bring operational efficiency by automating processes. When a collector buys an artwork through Arcual, the gallery and artist immediately get their share. That’s a big win for artists, and for the collectors who support them getting paid quickly.</p><p>As for the galleries, our system helps them send a sale agreement with all the terms about the artwork. The smart contract includes a detailed sales agreement, so there’s no disputing what the collector signed onto. It’s a legal agreement with some terms that are enabled by smart contracts. For example, if the artwork is resold and the agreement includes resale royalties, those are automatically executed.</p><p>Blockchain is often thought about as a way to help artists through disintermediation, but it can be used to protect the interests of the intermediary, so that an artist’s primary gallery can also be guaranteed a share of any resale royalties.</p><p>We’re also thinking about how we can bring the product to museums in the future.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>What’s your perspective on being a female founder in a notoriously male-dominated industry? </strong></p><p>I guess you can say that it’s a big deal that it’s a woman leading this business for MCH and LUMA. Yes, tech can be quite male. For example, in 2014, at my previous company Vastari, we were the only women-led business at our cohort in Microsoft Ventures – we were some of the few women in the whole room. But I was oblivious to that. Someone had to point it out to me!<strong></strong></p><hr /><p>Arcual is a new blockchain ecosystem offering smart contract solutions for the art community, co-founded with LUMA Foundation and brought to life by the technology and Web3 expertise of BCG X. This new initiative was born out of a shared mission to put artists at the center of the art ecosystem, offering them greater ownership, transparency, and participation in their careers.&nbsp;You can connect with <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arcual.art%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7CJuliette.Amoros%40artbasel.com%7C1b68b42bc9e248697d5008db20855880%7C4deb802ffdf24ebeae9b8df74fb06435%7C0%7C0%7C638139529349113131%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=KVicndGXLaR9Icn%2BN3U5sUd8Guif0rNrJnBoooE3uoY%3D&amp;reserved=0">Arcual</a> during Art Basel Hong Kong at Location: Level 1, Concourse – next to entrance 1C.</p><p>Brian Boucher is a writer and art market commentator based in New York City.</p><p>Published on March 10, 2023.</p><p>Caption for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1.&nbsp;Wallen Mapondera,<em>Dhoiri (Triptych)</em>, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Mitterrand.<strong>&nbsp;</strong>2. Kenneth Tam, <em style="background-color: initial;">Silent Spikes</em>, 2021 (video, edition 5 of 5). Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council. 3.&nbsp;Carlos Aires, <em style="background-color: initial;">Bon Appétit IV</em>, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Sabrina Amrani.</p>

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Ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong, CEO Bernadine Bröcker Wieder speaks about how the new company can meet the challenges of a global art world

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