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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lois Beckett in Los Angeles

‘Huge mess of theft and fraud:’ artists sound alarm as NFT crime proliferates

In this photo illustration, NFT logo is displayed on a smartphone with stock market percentages in the background in Poland, Jan 2022.
‘It is much easier to make forgeries in the blockchain space than in the traditional art world,’ says Tina Rivers Ryan. Photograph: Omar Marques/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

When Lois van Baarle, a Dutch artist, scoured the biggest NFT marketplace for her name late last year, she found more than 100 pieces of her art for sale. None of them had been put up by her.

Van Baarle is a popular digital artist, with millions of followers on social media. She’s one of a growing number of artists who have had online images of their art stolen, minted as unique digital assets on a blockchain, and offered up to trade in cryptocurrency on the NFT platform OpenSea.

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