.art is a
generic top-level domain
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of eve ...
(gTLD) in the
Domain Name System of the
Internet.
History
The TLD was entered into a registry agreement on March 24, 2016, between
ICANN and UK Creative Ideas Limited, and it became available to the public on 10 May 2017.
The founder of UK Creative Ideas and of is London-based investor and art collector
Ulvi Kasimov, who invested $25 million on the domain initiative.
There were nine other competing bids to operate the top-level domain.
Domains were registered by tech companies, luxury brands, and cultural organizations; some early registrations were purchased by
Apple,
Instagram,
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
, and
Rolex
Rolex SA () is a British-founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex'' as the brand name of ...
, along with the
Louvre,
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, the
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...
, and the
Guggenheim.
.art domain names can be assigned directly to artworks (rather than to institutions or individuals). This new service is called «Digital Twin». By negotiating a unique agreement with
ICANN .art has integrated into its domain registration forms the option of adding specific description fields. These fields contain information based on the Object ID – a universal art object identification standard developed by
J. Paul Getty Trust
The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, with an estimated endowment of US$7.7 billion in 2020. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations—the Getty Center in the B ...
and adopted by
UNESCO,
ICOM, and major law enforcement agencies. The standard contains necessary information about an artwork and its owner.
In 2020, the .art registry received a United States patent for storing and identifying objects in
WHOIS. The service is known as Digital Twin.
References
External links
Registrar portal website
Generic top-level domains
Art websites
Computer-related introductions in 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Art