The Sandbox and the British Museum bring art and history to the metaverse

The Sandbox metaverse development platform announced on July 27 that it would be partnering with the British Museum to bring it into the metaverse. 

The blog revealed that the partnership aims to create new “immersive experiences” for users to discover world history. A range of digital collectibles will be generated that reflect various collections within the museum.

— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) July 27, 2023

Sebastien Borget, chief operating officer and co-founder of The Sandbox, called it an opportunity to share the museum’s collections with new audiences.

“This is a great opportunity for The Sandbox players, regardless of where they are, to learn about and enjoy the amazing collections of human history, art, and culture in the British Museum.”

The collaboration also includes a Web3 platform called laCollection, the museum’s licensing partner, which has also worked with leading museum institutions around the world to bring art into the digital space. 

While this moment may be the first foray into the Web3 space for the British Museum, it is not the first time a major museum has found its way into the metaverse. 

Related: Will museums of the future just be giant NFT galleries?

This past spring, the Centre Pompidou, one of the top museums in France for modern art and home of the first collection of modern art in Europe, opened a new exhibition in the growing intersection of art and blockchain. 

The museum introduced pieces from some of the world’s most coveted nonfungible token (NFTs) collections, including CryptoPunks and Autoglyphs, as part of a permanent exhibition.

Prior to that, one of Ukraine’s oldest art museums, the Kharkiv Art Museum, launched an NFT collection as a fundraiser to maintain its operation and preserve its cultural heritage.

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp in Belgium was Europe’s first museum to tokenize a classic art masterpiece valued at millions of euros.

On the other side of things, last year, the metaverse platform Decentraland held Metaverse Art Week, which included various interactive exhibitions of digital art. This included an immersive experience surrounding the life and works of renowned painter Frida Kahlo with never-before-seen digitalized art.

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