Art is something we can appreciate the beauty of and for that alone, we don't per se need originals. Arguably, however, someone wanting to own the original pai

Art is something we can appreciate the beauty of and for that alone, we don't per se need originals. Arguably, however, someone wanting to own the original painting by a well regarded artist (say a van Gogh) you're stepping into Veblen goods territory[0] as its a display of wealth, status and prestige. This is what NFTs are trying to achieve [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good