British Museum ‘demeans itself’ with environment-harming NFTs

THE British Museum’s attempt to tap into the digital NFT market has produced enough carbon emissions to power a home for 57 years in just a few months, analysis suggests. NFTs, or “non-fungible tokens”, are digital assets stored and traded using the same technology used for cryptocurrencies.

The NFTs sold by the museum include images of art by JMW Turner and 19th-century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Bendor Grosvenor, the art historian, said the museum has “demeaned itself ” by taking part in the trend.

Writing in The Art Newspaper, he said: “Each transaction uses enough electricity to power the average US home for around nine days.”

A spokesman for the museum said it would soon be moving to new technology that uses significantly less energy.