The Art Angle Podcast: How Kenny Schachter Became an NFT Evangelist Overnight

Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that delves into the places where the art world meets the real world, bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join host Andrew Goldstein every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in museums, the art market, and much more with input from our own writers and editors as well as artists, curators, and other top experts in the field.

As much of the art world is beginning to rebound from the pandemic, the art market got a major shot in the arm itself: in little more than a week, New York’s big three auction houses held a spate of absolutely mammoth art sales, bringing in a cumulative $1.3 billion and showing, pretty unequivocally, that the art business is back, baby.

But, to me at least, one of the most remarkable things about these historic sales was that Artnet News’s veteran market columnist Kenny Schachter didn’t seem to care, or even pay them much mind. That’s because his mind has been transported to a distant planet, far away. That planet is called NFTs.

Yes, Kenny has become obsessed with non-fungible tokens, and perhaps more to the point, the possibilities that they open up for the hidebound way the art world works.

Since earlier this year, he has written a series of columns on NFTs that have been pretty astonishing, and, in inimitable Kenny fashion, he’s made some significant money off this novel marketplace along the way. This week, we just published the latest of this series as Kenny’s big debut behind our new premium Artnet News Pro membership, which we launched to provide analyst-calibre coverage for people who want to participate in the art market.

On this week’s episode, Kenny joins the show, in all his glory, to discuss (among other things) his career trajectory, his latest column, and how NFTs have changed his life.