Securing the Future of African Art: How Atsur is Building Trust Through Technology
TL;DR: Atsur is a blockchain platform that verifies and protects the value of African art. It creates digital certificates to ensure authenticity and ownership, building trust and helping African art thrive globally.
When art is bought and sold around the world, its value often depends on showing where it came from and that it's genuine. Sadly, artists and art collectors from Africa often miss out. Too many beautiful and valuable artworks have vanished into private collections or overseas sales without proper documentation, stripping artists of the recognition and income they deserve. The scale of the problem is staggering. Billions of dollars worth of African art are estimated to be lost, misattributed, or stolen. UNESCO estimates that 90% of Africa’s cultural heritage is held outside the continent. In the contemporary space, forgery and authorship disputes are disturbingly common. Atsur is changing that, offering the tools to protect and preserve Africa’s creative value.
Led by software engineer and blockchain advocate Adaobi Orajiaku, Atsur addresses the long-standing challenges African artists face in proving ownership and preserving value. Backed by experts in art curation, legal frameworks, and decentralized technologies, Atsur offers a homegrown solution.
Imagine your grandmother’s secret pepper soup recipe stolen and commercialized without proof of her authorship, denying her credit or legacy. Atsur solves this by building critical digital infrastructure for the African art ecosystem. Its urgent goal is simple: to verify, preserve, and protect African art using blockchain technology. It functions like a secure digital notebook. When an artist uploads their work, they receive a unique, tamper-proof digital certificate, permanently linked to them. Ownership is verified, timestamped, and stored on the blockchain. That means that even years down the line, anyone can trace its history, who created it, when, and where it's been.
For decades, the lack of reliable authentication made it difficult for artists to assert ownership, for collectors to trust purchases, and for institutions to build accurate archives. Atsur offers a long-overdue solution that is uniquely tailored to the African context. It understands that technology alone isn't enough; TRUST is paramount, and it must be earned. Trust is what was missing when an emerging Nigerian painter discovered that one of her works had been reproduced and sold abroad without her knowledge. With no formal documentation or proof of authorship, she had no grounds to challenge the sale. Her story isn’t rare. We were built for such cases.
Here's how Atsur works: artists create an account, upload artwork and metadata, and undergo a two-tiered verification process—automated AI checks and optional physical verification via Atsur's partners. Once verified, a digital certificate is tied to a public blockchain record. Artists can then mint and list their works through members of the Atsur Verification Alliance (AVA), a trusted network of verified galleries, fairs, and custodians enforcing high standards during sales and resales.
Artists across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya have shared stories of their works resurfacing in galleries abroad without their knowledge or permission. For collectors and galleries, Atsur offers the confidence that the work they are acquiring is authentic and properly attributed. This assurance is essential if African art is to gain a stronger footing in global markets and attract the kind of serious investment and scholarship it deserves.
Atsur also tracks ownership and the transfer of ownership over time. By selling via our payment APIs our blockchain-enabled smart contracts ensure that every stakeholder in the chain of custody, artists, collaborators, and rights holders, automatically receives their share of primary and secondary royalties. Art collectors also have the liberty to keep the original purchase value confidential and can choose to remain anonymous, even at the point of resale. However, once a new owner acquires the artwork, they assume full ownership rights, including access to its historical pricing records. This functionality enforces lifetime royalties for artists and commissions on every resale of an artwork while protecting the choice to privacy of collectors. Here’s what this means in practice:
Artists or contributors earn a commission each time their work is resold.
Buyers can trust the value of the piece and its potential resale appreciation, thanks to verified, transparent ownership records.
Legacy is protected; if an artist passes away, their next of kin continues to receive commissions, preserving intergenerational value.
Buyer privacy remains protected, if they choose, while smart contracts ensure that creators retain their rights and automatically receive royalties on every resale.
Atsur uses public blockchains - Polygon and Base for efficiency, and the Ethereum mainnet for high-value transactions. This tech stack was chosen for its affordability, user-friendliness, and decentralized transparency. The platform integrates AI-powered image verification to prevent fraud and uphold trust. Artists retain full ownership of their data and IP, with full rights to export or delete their records in line with global data standards like GDPR.
In 2025, Atsur partnered with Nigeria’s National Gallery of Art to digitize and authenticate over 3,000 works. This landmark step not only preserves Nigeria's cultural legacy but also demonstrates the potential when institutions embrace innovation tailored to African contexts. Atsur operates on a freemium model where artists can verify up to three artworks annually at no cost, while institutions and power users unlock advanced features via subscriptions. Revenue comes from verification fees, partner licensing, curated events, and white-label services. Atsur does not monetize user data. Instead, we build value through transparency, partnerships, and user empowerment.
Atsur isn’t reinventing the art world; it's making it more equitable. It bridges tradition and technology, empowering African artists and institutions with tools to safeguard their work, share OUR stories, and participate in the global art economy on fairer terms. By empowering existing players in the art ecosystem with our blockchain-based solutions, it aims to unlock the potential of the African art and luxury asset market, fostering growth and providing verifiable authenticity.
African art shouldn’t just be seen and celebrated. It should be protected, documented, and trusted through systems built for us.
Nosike is a positioning advisor at Atsur, a pioneering blockchain-based ArtTech startup. He also serves as a Public Relations Account Manager at InsiderPR, where he has supported leading startups and venture capital firms across Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Latin America, and MENA to connect with global audiences. A former Civic Tech Fellow at Code for Africa, he currently supports Climate Investment communications at the World Bank. Nosike has contributed to policy advocacy for the Nigeria Startup Act and brings over a decade of experience in marketing, external relations, and digital engagement, which he is passionate about applying to organizations that prioritize clear, growth-driven messaging.
