At RembrandtDAO, we see art as a public good. We want to help this painting find a home in a museum for the public to enjoy.
At RembrandtDAO, we see art as a public good. We want to help this painting find a home in a museum for the public to enjoy.
This is my father Seymour posing with a portrait of his father (and my Grandfather) Philip "PJ" Rappoport in front of 'The Minerva' a 1927 hand-made Belgian town car. The Rembrandt painting above is known as 'smell' from Rembrandt's early series on the 5 senses. Of the 4 Rembrandt 'sense' paintings known to exist, this is the only signed painting. It was bought by my Grandfather, owned by my father, yet sold by my relatives in 2015, a few months after my father's death. We are now in court to recover this painting from the current owner, a wealthy collector based in New York city. The court documents are publicly available. (you can find them on the website for New York County Supreme Court, case no. 653166 / 2020). Please do not publish or post the names of the people identified in the court documents, kindly allow them to make that decision for themselves.
RembrandtDAO is my tentpole project. The initial goal is to raise funding sufficient to steer this great art to a public museum. The idea is grounded in the belief in 'art as a public good' (AAAPG). Fund raising is necessary because it would other wise be necessary to sell the Rembrandt painting at auction to cover legal fees and compensate the family interests - and that is assuming we are successful in recovering the artwork. We could lose. Rather than speculate, we simply need to let the court process play out and go from there.
Any funding received here though, will be purposed to this and other projects, which I'll describe below.
A later stage build for example, is broadening the concept of AAAPG to include other art by everyday artists and craft persons sharing their work in everyday spaces; coffee shops, barber shops, bars, bakeries, clothing stores, etc. Anywhere the public is welcome. (more to follow).
Other projects I want to pursue are based on my personal interests in film, theater, entertainment and literature, and other subjects. I'll provide some links at some point to give a taste of some things I want to work on, other projects will I'm sure evolve over time. My most important project is giving life to my thesis on sustainable growth, published separately in both a youtube video and a NY Times article under the title; "A Bottle Bill for Climate".
Potential methods of fund raising can involve issuing social coins, offering NFT's and gaming, possibly even NFT's representing fractional ownership of the Rembrandt painting itself, if people are interested. As I say, a work in progress. A lot depends on the community response to these efforts and the levels of funding available. The first step is to let us know you're interested in RembrandtDAO by entering your email below.