After Art Basel, the art world usually drifts toward its summer destinations and settles into a lull. This year, however, was different. Despite the sluggish market the industry has faced in recent months, technological and economic shifts are accelerating, and the art world—long known for its slow pace of change—is now more reactive, scrambling to keep up with the sweeping societal changes reshaping every sector. While some legendary dealers, weary of the endurance required, have bowed out and the mega-galleries continue to expand, other players are making strategic moves, merging into single firms or corporations to gain global influence and experiment with disruptive models in an art business badly in need of change.
One of the most notable moves is the merger of Winston Art Group, a leading art advisory and appraisal firm, with the art-tech company Artory to form Winston Artory Group (WAG), a new entity offering a mix of appraisal, advisory and digital collection management services designed to meet the evolving needs of collectors, fiduciaries and institutions. The merger combines Winston’s decades of expertise with Artory’s pioneering Web3 infrastructure and institutional-grade data platform. It is backed by an investment led by Strobe Ventures, with participation from CMT Digital, Galaxy Digital, the family office of Eijk van Otterloo and other investors.
What sets Winston Artory Group apart from other ventures in the tokenization space is this combination of unparalleled access to both private and public transaction data, deep appraisal expertise across categories and technology refined over the past five years. Artory’s database already contains 50 million public auction records—25 percent in fine art and the rest in other collectible categories. It will be enriched with Winston’s large repository of private transactions and dealer data. While Artory built substantial holdings through partnerships with Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the merger gives it access to a deeper and more granular set of records that will significantly expand its value to clients.
Though presented in headlines as a breaking announcement, the partnership had been in development for years. The companies used that time to refine their model and clarify the real value of tokenization for clients and the broader art market—distancing themselves from the short-lived, often problematic experiments at the intersection of art, blockchain and fintech.
Trust and mutual respect were central to the deal. Winston Art Group founder Elizabeth von Habsburg and Artory founder Nanne Dekking emphasized their long history of collaboration when speaking to Observer about the merger’s implications. Dekking was deeply involved in the transactional side of the market, serving as vice chairman and worldwide head of private sales at Sotheby’s New York before founding Artory in 2016. Before Sotheby’s, he held senior roles at Wildenstein & Co., advising individuals, museums and foundations on their collections.
Von Habsburg, meanwhile, knew that while Winston was a leader in its field, scaling would require the right technology. “Winston Art Group has always been very tech-forward, but the art market has traditionally been quite tech-averse,” she tells Observer. “There’s been a hesitancy to incorporate technology into systems, and not really knowing how to leverage it to the best advantage. But it became clear that technology was the only way to scale.”
Dekking, for his part, recognized that while he had secured public auction data, the most trusted information comes from museums’ curatorial staff or independent appraisals—and that integrating these into blockchain records would be key. “When we looked at how Winston operates, especially with large financial institutions and insurance companies, it became clear to me that if we could use my company’s data and technology to tokenize appraisal information, we could store it in the safest way possible,” he says. “And if we allowed third parties to access that information, we could create efficiency, security and scalability.”
Targeting opportunities in the financial sector required someone fluent in that world. In 2023, Peter Loukas joined Artory as Chief Investment Officer to lead investment management and financial product innovation. With a background in fintech and asset management, Loukas was well placed to bridge traditional finance and the art market, using technology to improve transparency, liquidity and accessibility in art investment.
Artory and Winston Art Group’s collaboration dates back to late 2019, when they began enabling collectors to register validated artwork information on Artory’s blockchain-secured platform, with Winston providing appraisal and vetting at no cost. In 2022, they launched their first joint venture, Artory/Winston, to create investment opportunities in the art market, including tokenized ownership of physical works. Similar to the model offered by Masterworks, it promised to democratize access to art through fractional ownership, but also raised concerns in the traditional art world about reducing art to a speculative asset.
Their first offering was a fractionalized investment in Damien Hirst’s Psalm 116: Dilexi, quoniam via the Republic platform, with a target raise of $352,500-$375,000 and investment minimums of $250. Investors would receive equity in Straat100, LLC, a Delaware entity owning the painting as its sole asset, with profits anticipated from a sale within five years. The campaign closed March 29, 2023, without reaching its goal.
Despite that, the partnership moved ahead with a $25 million tokenized, diversified closed-end art fund in 2022, offering shares and tokens to accredited investors in a portfolio of blue-chip, mid-career and emerging artists. That initiative evolved into the newly formed Winston Artory Group. Throughout, the companies focused on building both front-end and back-end systems for data and collection management, now core to the merger’s strategy. “Artory’s focus has always been on not just tokenization, but also the back-end and front-end systems needed to interact with artwork,” Loukas says. “Artory has been building appraisal software based entirely on the compliance specifications that Winston had already been using in their process.”
There’s potential for innovation across the broader art industry
To understand its significance of this merger, it’s worth taking a step back to look at what it really means to tokenize an artwork. Until now, the art market’s adoption of blockchain has been largely tied to its potential to improve transparency. As an immutable ledger, it can securely store and verify an artwork’s complete history—from creation to current ownership—along with related documents and data. Provenance tracking is central to addressing authenticity concerns and preventing fraud or misattribution. This gives buyers and sellers a reliable way to authenticate works, and a well-documented provenance often adds to an artwork’s prestige and market value.
A recurring challenge, however, is that although auction houses and appraisers typically conduct extensive research to establish value, much of that information is lost over time. As works change hands, the research rarely follows them, meaning each new owner must commission the same work again for appraisals or sales.
Blockchain and tokenization offer a way for this information to travel with the artwork, with its history traceable and updatable in real time. Artory’s blockchain registry does this by recording every transaction in an artwork’s lifecycle. Its most recent platform incorporates smart contracts that allow shipping companies and storage facilities to certify an artwork’s location. This level of traceability is valuable not just to owners but also to insurers and financial institutions. By providing secure, verified records, blockchain enables these institutions to treat art as a financial asset, supporting more accurate valuations over time. This is particularly important for art loans and is equally relevant for managing a collection within a broader wealth management or estate planning strategy.
This is Winston Artory Group’s key selling point for private clients: enabling more active engagement with the value of their collections. By making data actionable, WAG creates opportunities to leverage that value and potentially generate liquidity. Its aim is to provide tailored service and a bespoke platform that prioritizes privacy, security and long-term wealth.
“The important point here is that it’s not just about tokenization itself,” says Elizabeth von Habsburg. “We realized early on that clients don’t necessarily care whether something is tokenized. What they care about is that tokenization makes the information actionable.” It’s about making artworks across categories usable for both real-time intelligence and long-term strategy. This means, as she explains, enabling clients—or their fiduciaries—to make informed decisions about collection value, assess unrealized gains and losses and share the data with insurers for accurate underwriting. It also supports estate planning with a true understanding of current value.
Real-time valuations are a major advantage. “This means that, just like clients review their equity portfolios quarterly, they can now also assess their art and collectibles on a quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis to know their current value,” von Habsburg says.
The focus has shifted toward the long-term benefits of tokenization, moving beyond fractional ownership models to create tools for integrating collections into financial and legacy planning. “Our starting point is really about helping collectors understand what they own, what it’s worth, and what they can do with it, and then providing the services they need to actually transact and manage that value wisely,” says Peter Loukas. “Right now, that basic process doesn’t exist in the industry.”
“We’re aiming to help collectors through the entire life cycle of their collection, including estate transfers. We can track ownership and attest to all of that within the token, so it becomes more than just a line item in their financial reporting,” he adds. The result is a fully itemized list with real-time values and verified information, secured through blockchain. “The opportunities this unlocks are pretty meaningful, even when you think about basic financial strategies.”
The group is already working with several major collectors who have gifted or plan to gift art to museums, Dekking reveals. “They want to understand what they’ve actually given to the museum and the value of those pieces. This makes the entire process much more efficient.”
While this approach may position artworks as legitimate financial assets—especially for financial institutions—Loukas is careful to note the distinction. For him, art remains primarily a “risk asset” with high potential gains but uncertain returns and possible loss of principal. Collectors, however, want to limit that risk, which makes proper insurance at accurate values critical. “The average collector didn’t start collecting for investment, but they also don’t want to leave their estate in a position where things aren’t properly sorted, leading to infighting over how to divide the artworks,” Loukas says. “We’re focused on risk management—preserving the value of what you own and increasing that value by actively engaging with the collection, not just letting it sit as a passive store of value, but protecting and growing it.”
The collectibles market is their next target
Winston Artory Group is taking a holistic approach to collections, much as it has in its traditional appraisal and advisory work. The goal is to help clients manage the value not just of fine art but of a broad range of collectibles, expanding beyond the top tier. “Winston was already working with assets beyond fine art and we have incredible experts and entire departments focused on things like watches, wine and other collectibles, so the scope is already wide,” says von Habsburg. “Even beyond the top tier of the market, there’s a very young team working with emerging artists.”
According to the group, the security and tracking provided by tokenization will eventually allow loans against lower-priced assets as well as entire collections. They are already in discussions with financial institutions that have shown interest in and willingness to trust this new system of certification and real-time value tracking.
As Dekking points out, most art market transactions are valued at under $1 million, and reports show that these lower tiers are the most dynamic—particularly as the collector base broadens—while the top tier remains stagnant. Yet eligibility criteria for art loans currently apply only to a small segment of the market, creating barriers for those seeking liquidity without selling. “The key here is that by making the information programmable, we allow for greater flexibility,” Dekking says. “Imagine a lender being able to input their eligibility criteria across an entire collection. Once we remove the minimum value threshold, we make many more assets eligible for financial products.”
In this context, Winston Artory Group’s role is to validate information for artworks and categories that lenders typically would not consider. “We’ve signed a few partnerships where lenders are looking to us as the trusted source of information. We have the expertise, and we can efficiently prepare all the necessary research—something that wasn’t possible before,” says Loukas.
Ultimately, the focus is on helping collectors better leverage their collections, bringing liquidity into the market without requiring a sale. All data will be accessible through a secure portal, where clients can view their holdings, current values, updated estimates and historical performance. Collectors will be able to track unrealized gains and losses, changing how they approach donations, estate transfers, or selling to capture a tax loss.
“All of this information is in one place, along with predictions on future prices. When you tie all of that together, it really transforms how clients interact with their collections and manage their assets,” Loukas says, describing the platform as more than a collection management tool. The business model hinges on actively collecting and updating information, removing friction from the process. “While the functionality may be similar to a traditional collection management system, the real value we offer is on the financial side, helping clients manage and optimize their assets in ways that go beyond just tracking ownership.”
Demand for the digital portal has been so strong that the group has created a waitlist, offering access selectively to some clients.
Despite its emphasis on technology, the group is keeping the human element central. By leveraging Winston’s top specialists in each category, they ensure that all data is accurately contextualized. “They’ll always be reviewing the information, ensuring that the trends and real-time valuations produced using our data and technology are accurate,” von Habsburg says. This is not an A.I.-automated appraisal system; rather, it uses data to generate trends that are then scrutinized by experts, making the results more reliable.
The potential applications extend beyond private clients. Museums could use this approach to better track parts of their collections. Dealers—often in greater need of liquidity—could borrow against inventory to access capital for operations, even if they have been reluctant to adopt blockchain in the past.
Artists, the founders say, could also benefit. This technology could allow them to track their works, request current information and history and potentially earn automatic royalties from resales or changes of ownership, as other artist-focused blockchain initiatives like Fair Chain have explored. While this is not yet Winston Artory Group’s primary focus, it could provide artists with ongoing income from the secondary market.
