NEW YORK, NY.- In the early days of blockchain and cryptocurrency as emerging mediums for artistic expression, artists Elliott Arkin and Marc Lafia never imagined that their pioneering conceptual work, Mundicoin—part of the Real Salvator Mundi project—would one day serve as the legal rationale for a cryptocurrency launched by none other than the President of the United States ($Trumpcoin). Unlike the other art cryptocurrencies at the time, Mundicoin was both a cryptocurrency and an artwork, backed solely by a philosophical conceit rather than any tangible asset. Now, even more shockingly, the artists have come to suspect that their original artwork has been destroyed by Europe’s largest asset management company.

Mundicoin gained widespread recognition in February 2018 when Tim Schneider, founder of the Gray Market and art business editor at Artnet News, published a defining three-part essay exploring artists working with blockchain. In the second installment, Cryptocurrencies, Explained: Why Artists Are Already Leaving Bitcoin Behind for Something Bigger, Schneider described leading figures in the space, such as CryptoKitties and Sarah Meyohas’s Bitchcoin. But among the avant-garde digital artists, Schneider declared that Mundicoin “rattles the cage the loudest.” This distinction set Mundicoin apart as the first memecoin that was also a work of art.

The Rise and Vanishing of Mundicoin

Following this recognition, Arkin and Lafia assembled a team of tech and crypto experts and began seeking investors with a fundraising goal of $500,000. However, their project faced an unexpected challenge when, just three months after Schneider’s article was published, a small Bolivian cryptocurrency named Mundo Virtual suddenly rebranded itself as Mundicoin in May 2018.

To protect their artistic concept, Arkin applied for a trademark for Mundicoin in the U.S. and was preliminarily approved. However, as per standard procedure, the new trademark was published for potential challenges by existing rights holders.

That’s when Amundi Asset Management, Europe’s largest asset management company with over $2.2 trillion in assets, entered the picture. They challenged Arkin’s right to the name, despite the fact that Arkin had coined the term himself. Arkin believed Amundi’s claim was an overreach—after all, "who in their right mind would confuse a conceptual artwork appropriating a heavily restored 15th-century painting of Jesus Christ (supposedly by Leonardo da Vinci) with Europe's largest financial services brand? What was Amundi trying to imply?" he thought. Facing the daunting prospect of legal warfare against a financial giant with an outside counsel ready to rack-up countless billable hours, Arkin and Lafia ultimately decided to sell the entire Mundicoin project—which included its trademark—to Amundi in June 2020. Due to a non-disclosure agreement, the purchase price remains undisclosed.

“This was the best way I could resolve the art piece and keep the integrity of what Marc and I created as a historical conceptual work of art,” Arkin explained.

Mundicoin Resurfaces Amidst the Trump Meme Coin Boom

Fast-forward to 2024, when Donald Trump, as a presidential candidate, announced the launch of his own meme-based cryptocurrency/artwork, $TRUMP. The move reignited interest in Mundicoin, with collectors and crypto enthusiasts inquiring about its fate.

As George Nelson wrote for Artnews, labeling a meme coin as art provides significant advantages:

“Labeling [$TRUMP] as art can provide certain protections, avoid legal challenges, or redefine its purpose in ways that align with legal or regulatory frameworks... One of the biggest legal challenges for cryptocurrencies and meme coins is being classified as a security under financial regulations like the Howey Test. If a coin is deemed a security, it must comply with strict regulations that require registration, disclosures, and compliance measures. By declaring a meme coin as art or as a cultural product, its creators can argue that it is not an investment vehicle but a collectible or a creative expression.”

Mundicoin had pioneered this very concept—separating itself from financial liabilities by existing as an artwork rather than a standard cryptocurrency.

A Legal Battle Over Artistic Rights

When Dutch art collector and entrepreneur Ben Van Meerendonk contacted Amundi to inquire about purchasing Mundicoin, he received a surprising response: representing Attorney Matthew Lombard of the law firm Lombard Geliebter Cohen, claimed Amundi "did not purchase any artwork from Mr. Arkin." Van Meerendonk relayed this to Arkin causing the artist to reach out to Amundi and remind them of their signed agreement.

However, in response, Amundi doubled down and insisted that they had separated the trademark and title from the artwork, arguing that while they now controlled the word Mundicoin, Arkin was free to retain the so called “underlying art”—so long as it bore a different name.

Arkin strongly opposed this assertion as nonsensical. He also pointed to his rights under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), which protects artists from having their works altered or destroyed without their consent as well as retaining recognition for his authorship.

“I explicitly wrote Amundi that Mundicoin was an artwork in its entirety and could not be separated. Mundicoin is the ‘meme’ in the meme coin cryptocurrency/artwork. What they are trying to call ‘underlying artwork’ is just giving me back the raw materials. They basically stole the art and want to destroy it. It’s like they wiped off ‘R. Mutt’ from Duchamp’s urinal, hung it on the bathroom wall, and now use it to piss in.” Thus far, Amundi Asset Management's reply to all press inquiries has been “no comment.”

The implications of this case could set a legal precedent for how conceptual and blockchain-based artworks are treated. If Amundi succeeds in decoupling Mundicoin from its artistic origins, they will not only have complete control over a term Arkin authored and the Mundicoin trademark but also redefine the boundaries of artistic ownership in the digital age. In response, Arkin’s attorney has sent a legal notice to Amundi asserting violations in their agreement.

For now, the fate of Mundicoin—and what it means for digital art’s future—remains uncertain. As the legal battle unfolds, its outcome could reshape how conceptual and blockchain-based art is protected under copyright and intellectual property law—potentially impacting artists and investors alike.

Stay tuned.