BOGGS ESTATE SELLS NFTS, RECEIPT AND CHANGE

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V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 25, Number 42, October 16, 2022, Article 17

J.S.G. Boggs Lives! My old friend Money Artist J.S. G. Boggs is active again from beyond the grave. His estate is launching an NFT project - non-fungible tokens confirming ownership of unique electronic artworks together with limited edition physical prints and a receipt recording the transaction. Boggs would be delighted with the concept. As this press release notes, his philosophical explorations of the nature of money and value led him to the emerging world of electronic money, and many today consider him an intellectual Founding Father of today's cryptocurrencies.

As noted in earlier E-Sylum articles, the artist Damien Hirst's NFT project "The Currency" gave buyers the option of receiving an NFT or a physical artwork. Collectors came in with a 50-50 split decision. With this Boggs project, collectors receive both. As a longtime Boggs collector I'll attempt to add one of more of these offerings to my collection. Good luck to readers who participate in the sales. -Editor

Marking the 5th anniversary of the artist's death, the Estate of J.S.G. Boggs and laCollection are launching the first NFT project continuing Boggs' legacy of experimenting with the fundamental value of money

The Estate of J.S.G. Boggs and laCollection are proud to announce the exhibition J.S.G. Boggs: Money Talks consisting of 5 limited digital editions based on original currency artworks by J.S.G. Boggs. Featuring European and US currency, the sale will launch with 50 editions of an iconic British £50 note similar to the works shown in the London exhibition that led to Boggs' arrest and subsequent acquittal for forgery. The note features a beautiful hand-drawn portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a young woman.

Deemed by some the Patron Saint of Cryptocurrency, the late J.S.G. Boggs was a bold, provocative artist who questioned the value of money as an object. Famous for using his own hand-drawn bank notes in everyday transactions, Boggs was also visionary in his early exploration of digital currency. As early as the 1990's, Boggs advised the creators of an "encrypted on-line currency," prompting many to regard him as a philosophical forefather of Bitcoin. He also famously took on the Bank of England and won in a case that led to all their future banknotes adopting a ‘copyright' logo. To mark the 5th anniversary of the artist's death, the Estate of J.S.G. Boggs is launching the first NFT project that continues Boggs' legacy of experimenting with values of exchange and challenging the very fundamentals of money.

It's all an act of faith. Nobody knows what a dollar is, what the word means, what holds the thing up, what it stands in for. —from Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999) by Lawrence Weschler

In addition to their NFT, collectors will receive a limited edition printed bank note and a personalised J.S.G. Boggs 3.0 receipt issued by the Estate. The receipt honours the pivotal role of transactions in the artist's process and how it currently manifests in Web3.

Other benefits will include an exclusive online private viewing of several treasures in the archive by the Estate Curator and close friend of the artist, Craig Whitford. They also include a Q&A session with Craig and the Estate's Advisor and NFT aficionado, Jeff Koyen. Collectors will be granted access to rare artworks by J.S.G. Boggs and will enter the behind-the-scenes of the Estate.

J.S.G. Boggs: Money Talks is part of a larger exploration of Art & Currency on the laCollection platform and will be shown alongside a group show of contemporary crypto artists on view from October 24th, 2022. For decades, artists have conceptually challenged the idea of money, interpreting what it means for society and for humanity as a whole. This has been especially prevalent in the past 70 years with the rise of consumerism and now cryptocurrencies. Art & Currency presents a dialog between key historical artworks including J.S.G. Boggs' and newly created crypto-art including Obvious, and others to understand the theme's continuity in art history.

We're excited to launch our first artist's estate partnership. We believe NFTs are an incredible way for estates to share with a global audience the richness of their archives and develop knowledge about the artist. Proceeds from NFT sales will enable estates to finance conservation and research endeavors.

As early as the 1990's, Boggs already advised the creators of an ‘encrypted digital currency'. It seems only fitting to create NFTs of his artworks.

We are both honoured and thrilled to partner with laCollection on this debut edition of digital works. Under the careful guidance of our historian and archivist, Craig A. Whitford, laCollection has produced a series of NFTs that honour Boggs's legacy while also placing his work squarely in the world of cryptocurrency, blockchain art and tokenized assets — right where it belongs.

Working with La Collection's team has been exciting and enormously educational, and we're grateful for this opportunity.

Proceeds from this sale will be used by the Estate to further preserve J.S.G. Boggs's lifetime of art, with the ultimate goal of making these archives available to the public.

The NFT collection will be made available on laCollection.io beginning on October 17th, with one new bank note added to the sale each week. The sale begins with the £50 (Fifty Pound Note), 1990; followed by 100 ? (One Hundred French Francs), 1989; 100 CHF (One Hundred Swiss Francs), 1988; €1 (One Euro) with Self-Portrait, 2002; and $5000 (Five Thousand Dollars) with Self-Portrait, 2001.

James Stephen George Boggs (1955-2017), commonly known as J.S.G. Boggs — or simply Boggs to his friends — was an American artist renowned for his renderings of currency that, as works of art, became more valuable than the actual bills they represented. Decades ahead of his time, Boggs the prankster and provocateur gleefully challenged the government's authority to dictate what forms of money were valid as legal tender. Though he acknowledged the government's right to issue fiat, he questioned the political and philosophical bases of its monopoly. Until his death in 2017, Boggs travelled the world drawing local banknotes — Boggs Bills — and exchanging them in what he called Transactions.

The artist was always clear that these were not counterfeits, but rather works of art with a proposed face value. A complete Transaction included the original artwork, a receipt for the goods purchased, whatever change Boggs received, and, in several instances, the items purchased. Typically, it was a gallery owner who (working on a tip from the artist himself) tracked down the various components and collected them into a completed transaction. Today, Boggs's Transactions are held by museums and private collectors around the world.

laCollection.io offers collectors new ways to discover, experience and own exceptional art on the blockchain from the world's best museums, and leading digital artists. Each NFT is authenticated, approved by the relevant museum, gallery or artist, and secured on the blockchain. Collectors will be able to create their own cross-museum galleries of digital art, forging a new community of people with a passion for art and innovation. laCollection.io has joined forces with sustainable forestry tech company EcoTree.green to launch a 60-year nature-based climate-positive plan., and tracks its carbon footprint with Green Element, a B-Corp climate and sustainability audit firm offering net-zero solutions to major international brands, in alignment with the STBi criteria (Science Target Based Initiative) as defined by the United Nations.

When JSG Boggs passed away in 2017 he left no descendants, thus the responsibility to protect, preserve and extend his legacy fell to members of his family. It is a task that they have taken up with great pride.

In the past five years, the Estate has worked tirelessly to collect, catalogue and preserve Boggs's enormous body of work, which spanned several continents, formats and media. Digging deep into basements and storage units, they have rescued thousands of works — many, long-forgotten. They found youthful drawings that reveal Boggs' early obsession with numbers; enormous works that once toured the U.S.; and hard drives that may still hold original Photoshop files of artworks. With luck, they may even learn more about the encrypted online currency that presciently occupied Boggs in the late 90s long before it became a technological reality. In the words of the Estate's Director, Edward Keebler, their work has only just begun.

To view the Boggs collection on lacollection.io and order, see:
J.S.G. BOGGS IN-VALUABLE (https://lacollection.io/contemporary/a-and-c/boggs)