Rembrandt’s First NFTs of ‘The Night Watch’ to be Released by The Rembrandt Heritage Foundation at the MetaRembrandt Museum

Owners of a Night Watch NFT piece will have exclusive access to the World’s First digital museum with Rembrandt van Rijn’s full art collection!
Soon everyone will be able to get their hands on a digital piece of ‘The Night Watch’. This was announced today by the Rembrandt Heritage Foundation and HODL Finance, on the first anniversary of the death of the world-renowned Rembrandt expert, Prof. Dr. Ernst van de Wetering, who also worked extensively with the Foundation.

The Night Watch will be divided into 8,000 pieces which will then be made available to everyone in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), a digital certificate of ownership. With this, people will not only become the owner of their own piece of ‘The Night Watch’, but also the founder of the MetaRembrandt Museum, which will be revealed at a later date. This is a digital museum and the only place in the world where all the paintings of Rembrandt van Rijn are remastered, digitally restored to their original state, and can be admired in high definition. With this initiative, The Rembrandt Heritage Foundation, in memory of Ernst van de Wetering, wants to preserve Rembrandt’s collection forever and make it accessible for future generations.

The Night Watch in 8,000 Digital Pieces

Prof. Dr. Ernst van de Wetering has managed to trace, authenticate and preserve all of Rembrandt’s works. One of Van de Wetering’s valuable contributions is that, together with The Rembrandt Heritage Foundation, he has digitized and remastered all the works of Rembrandt’s art. In this way he has ensured that the art remains digitally immortalized. The Night Watch’, for example, has been digitized and returned to its most original state, with Van de Wetering recreating the pieces that were cut off in 1715 and thought to be lost forever back in its rightful place. It is now possible for everyone to obtain their own piece of this world-famous painting in the form of NFTs. This stands for a Non-Fungible Token: a unique digital certificate of ownership that cannot be copied, replaced or subdivided and is recorded in a database (blockchain).

Jess Muntenaar, COO at HODL Finance said, “We are proud that together with The Rembrandt Heritage Foundation we have digitally reconstructed and captured all the paintings of Rembrandt in high definition and can make them accessible to everyone. In this way, Rembrandt will always exist and all future generations will continue to learn about this world-famous painter. We believe that digital art is the future and that the rise of NFTs will play a big role in this. We hope this unique Rembrandt project will be an inspiration for the art sector to think about how art can be modernized.”

Founder MetaRembrandt Museum

An owner of one of the 8,000 pieces of the Night Watch, also becomes a Founder of the MetaRembrandt Museum. This gives the owner exclusive access to this digital museum, where Rembrandt’s most famous paintings and other historical works of art are on display. An additional advantage is that one can ‘rent’ his or her NFT to other art lovers or Rembrandt fans. This gives them access to the entire Rembrandt collection and to exclusive events in the MetaRembrandt Museum and in real life.

Pim Slager, co-founder of The Rembrandt Heritage Foundation, says: “Our goal with The Rembrandt Heritage Foundation is to ensure that the works of Rembrandt remain accessible to everyone for a lifetime. With the opening of the MetaRembrandt Museum, people can view all the paintings of Rembrandt in a digital environment. This is the only place in the world where this is possible. I feel honoured that we can now realise the ideas of Prof. Dr. Ernst van de Wetering and share the life’s work of Rembrandt van Rijn with the whole world in this way.”