BRUSSELS, 27 April 2022 – Hogan Lovells has advised the Rubey platform in its collaboration with The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) to become the first European museum to offer to the market Art Security Tokens, enabling a broad spectrum of art lovers and the general public to invest in a museum-quality piece of art. The KMSKA, which will be celebrating its reopening the weekend of 24 and 25 September 2022,  will keep the Ensor painting on display after the offering so that the piece remains accessible to all visitors.

Art Security Tokens represent the value of a product that exists in the physical world, in this case the work ‘Carnaval de Binche’ by James Ensor. The Art Tokens are registered on the Ethereum/Polygon blockchain.

Hogan Lovells provided advice on Belgian law and the team included partner Philip Van Steenwinkel, senior associate Charles-Henri Bernard and associate Frederik Stappers. The team have joined the Brussels office of Hogan Lovells in May 2021, together with partner Ivan Peeters and associate Sean Jonckheere, with the aim to expand the firm’s finance, capital markets and financial regulatory offering.

According to Philip Van Steenwinkel, “This project represents a highly innovative way of issuing securities based on DLT within the Belgian legal framework. Hogan Lovells is a global leader on Blockchain and impact investing and we are proud to be part of this public-private partnership in Belgium, supporting KMSKA and the Rubey platform.”

Rubey is a collaboration between three parties: advertising agency Untitled Workers Club, consultancy 2140 Consulting, and tech entrepreneur Peter Hinssen.