Nelson Mandela’s iconic status for democracy continues to have an impact on South Africa and has now become a money-minting legacy. It was the case recently when his 60-year-old arrest warrant was auctioned and sold for $130,000 on Momint — a London-based NFT marketplace.
Nelson Mandela Larger Than Life Image
Not many past African Leaders have the kind of outsized impact Mandela, who died in 2013, has on South Africa. Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected president after being released from prison in 1990. Items attached to the anti-apartheid icon have always been attractive at auction, but it isn’t always a straightforward affair.
On January 28, Guernsey’s, a New York auction house, had planned to auction mementoes from Mandela’s life. The public was invited to bid on objects such as the key to Mandela’s Robben Island cell, a tennis racquet, glasses, and a Mandela-signed copy of South Africa’s 1996 constitution, among other items.
Last December, South Africa’s minister of sport, arts, and culture, Nathi Mthethwa, protested the auction, claiming that the Robben Island key belonged to the people of South Africa and that Guernsey hadn’t consulted the government. The auction was later cancelled after the South African Heritage Resources Agency asked Guernsey to call it off.
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According to a report, in 2004, the original copy of the recently auctioned Mandela’s arrest warrant was donated to Liliesleaf Museum Heritage Site, an organisation that documents South Africa’s fight for freedom and democracy. The warrant itself was issued in 1962 by South Africa’s then minority rulers after they accused Mandela of conspiring to overthrow the government.
There has been no controversy with the arrest-warrant NFT auction.
Funding Museum with NFT Proceeds
Before the auction of Mandela’s arrest warrant, Liliesleaf Museum Heritage Site had auctioned the NFT of a gun pen owned by Mandela’s fellow liberation leader Oliver Tambo for $50,000 in November 2021, also on Momint.
The founder of the Liliesleaf Museum, Nicholas Wolpe, says the proceeds from auctions will be used to maintain the museum which had been hit hard by the lack of tourism during the COVID pandemic. He also stated that the funds raised so far from the auction are not enough, and the museum still needs about $1.7 million before it can reopen.
“Based upon all historical figures to clear all the debt and provide for at least the next year or two. Repairs need to be done, exhibits need to be fixed, and then the day-to-day operations, paying for salaries and getting the place back on its feet,” he said.
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Wolpe said last year; he was approached by one of the owners of Momint, the company that runs the NFT marketplace. They explained that the museum’s artefacts could earn cash while staying on site for security purposes and preservation.
“He explained the process of NFTs to me, and I said this is a wonderful opportunity for not only Liliesleaf but for historical sites around the world because we currently live in an environment where the reality is that government funding is not what it used to be,” he said.
Momint’s CEO Ahren Posthumus explains that NFTs, which use blockchain technology, are a way of putting value to the content on the internet. The buyer of the warrant, he says, gets significant long-term benefits.
“So, they are the only person in the world who will have the original of what’s called the Alpha File of the scan of the document. So, you can view the document online, and it’s incredibly high detailed. You can see the ink bleeding through the paper, but the document owner is the only one who will have the fully uncompressed version of this 3D file. It also gives the buyer access to the physical document as well as a five per cent royalty in perpetuity. So, as a buyer, if they resell the piece and if the piece gets sold 10 or a hundred times, they will receive a royalty on the piece, which is amazing. Liliesleaf Museum will equally be getting a royalty on the piece’s resale,” he said.
Commenting on the latest NFT auction, Posthumus also quoted why museums need to pivot into NFTs. He said:
“Museum sites stay afloat. They have been badly affected by the lack of tourism due to Covid. So this is a way to revitalise their flow and keep history alive.”
Conservancies like the Black Rock Rhino have used NFT revenues to pay for some of the sanctuary’s day-to-day expenses, in addition to museums. The nonprofit organisations’ shift to NFTs comes after a study found that more South Africans are buying or interested in buying NFTs.
