NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - In the latest example of art market disruption, a prominent former auction executive teamed up with cryptocurrency experts in May to purchase the 2005 Banksy painting Love Is In the Air for US$12.9 million (S$17.7 million) and now plans to sell off 10,000 pieces of it as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.

The executive, Mr Loic Gouzer, who upended the traditional auction format while he was at Christie's has helped found the company Particle, a platform that merges art and technology with a goal of reaching a broader pool of potential buyers.

"When I was a kid and I was looking at auctions and catalogues, I always felt it was impossible to participate financially and that I was by definition excluded," he said. "Fractionalising the work in 10,000 NFTs allows a much wider audience to be part of a collecting experience.

"Of course you can enjoy art when you go to a museum, but the enjoyment from art comes also with owning it," he said. "That's why people collect."

If successful, the venture could help fuel a burgeoning category of competition in the art market, with consortia of multiple buyers challenging the preeminence of billionaire collectors at a time when the pandemic has accelerated online commerce. NFTs have become increasingly popular, accounting for one-third of online sales, or two per cent of the overall art market, according to the database Artprice.

Last month, thousands of cryptocurrency fans - calling themselves ConstitutionDAO - pooled their money to bid on an original printing of the Constitution at Sotheby's. Last March, digital artist Beeple (aka Mike Winkelmann) sold his NFT Everydays: The First 5,000 Days for US$69 million at a Christie's online auction.

"We're not selling you the image of the painting," said Mr Harold Eytan, Particle's CEO. "We're selling you this concept of ownership of a piece of the painting."