ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Entertainment

    • Cuban artists blocked from once-promising NFT trading sites

    Photographer Gabriel Guerra Bianchini poses holding his photo collage titled 'Hotel Habana 3/10' in Havana, Cuba, March 31, 2021. The photo is the first NFT, Non-Fungible Token, to be auctioned by an artist resident in Cuba, but in 2022, doors began to close for artists like him as key NFT trading platforms have gradually blocked Cuban artists on and off the island from their platforms. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)  Photographer Gabriel Guerra Bianchini poses holding his photo collage titled 'Hotel Habana 3/10' in Havana, Cuba, March 31, 2021. The photo is the first NFT, Non-Fungible Token, to be auctioned by an artist resident in Cuba, but in 2022, doors began to close for artists like him as key NFT trading platforms have gradually blocked Cuban artists on and off the island from their platforms. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) 
    Share
    HAVANA -

    When everything seemed to be going wrong, Cuban multimedia artist Alejandro Pablo Garcia Alarcon found a solution in what some might consider an unusual place: NFTs.

    Artists like him have been dealt multiple blows in recent years: The pandemic wreaked havoc on Cuba's tourism sector, sending art sales plummeting. American sanctions, while not explicitly applying to art, made it harder for Cubans to sell their works. And for artists whose work can veer into political commentary, like Garcia Alarcon's, it can be hard to get featured in Cuban galleries.

    NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are digital images registered on a blockchain and generally purchased with cryptocurrencies. They offer artists such as Garcia Alarcon a rare loophole because they can profit from their art on an international stage with few speech restrictions due to the medium's decentralized nature.

    "The first thing that drew me to it was the freedom," said Garcia Alarcon, known best by his artist name, Paolo De. "You can commercialize your work without intermediaries, without having to pass through a filter."

    But this year, doors have begun to close for artists from Cuba and other countries facing U.S. sanctions because key NFT trading sites have gradually blocked them from doing business on their platforms, often with little or no explanation.

    Garcia Alarcon is among at least 30 Cuban artists whose profiles have been delisted from at least two American-owned NFT trading sites sites, including the largest one, OpenSea, and KnownOrigin, according to Cuban NFT artist collectives.

    Neither site responded to an Associated Press email seeking comment.

    The delistings have extended to some of the biggest names in the Cuban digital art scene, including Havana's most popular interactive art space, Fabrica de Arte Cubano, and photographer Gabriel Guerra Bianchini, the first Cuba resident to auction off a piece as an NFT.

    In March 2021, his work "Hotel Habana 3/10," which features a mix of photos of Havana's old, classic buildings stacked on top of each other, made a splash in the local art scene. His OpenSea page now reads "404. This page is lost."

    On its website, OpenSea boasts that it is "building an open digital economy" and that users can "trade their items freely."

    Garcia Alarcon began trading NFTs on OpenSea in April 2021, using his first work as a political commentary on the controversial detention of protesting Cuban artists in January of that year. He earned $200 from it and proceeded to sell around 20 more NFTs through the website.

    At one point, OpenSea promoted Garcia Alarcon as an artist to watch. But last March, he was suddenly locked out of his account without explanation.

    "They sell you the idea of freedom, that you can show your work, that there's no censorship," Garcia Alarcon said. "You use the platform to show what you can't show in your own country, and then this happens."

    When an artist is taken off of a platform, the art they sold is also removed from the site. Although the NFT continues to exist on the blockchain and is available to view on other NFT trading sites, artists say it's often viewed as a loss by collectors who are confused or want to display the art on more popular platforms.

    Although OpenSea hasn't said why it removed the work of the Cuban artists, it likely has to do with the perceived risks of running afoul of U.S. sanctions. Amid criticism for delisting Iranian artists earlier this year, OpenSea told the crytocurrency news site Decrypt in March: "We have a zero tolerance policy for the use of our services by sanctioned individuals or entities and people located in sanctioned countries."

    The costs of violating the sanctions can be steep, as the U.S. Treasury Department fined the cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex $24 million in October for allowing traders to evade American sanctions in places such as Cuba, Syria, Iran and Sudan.

    Though the U.S. has imposed economic sanctions on Cuba for more than six decades, including bans on commercial products such as cigars and rum, those sanctions don't apply to a lot of Cuban art. But in some cases, NFTs have come to be considered more as an investment vehicle, selling for tens of millions of dollars during the 2021 boom.

    For Gianni D'Alerta, a Cuban American who has lived in Miami his entire life and has never visited the island, the medium was "an opportunity to engage with my culture" and bridge a longstanding divide between Cubans on the island and in Miami.

    He's the organizer of NFTcuba.ART, a collective of around 100 Cuban artists around the world. Last week he received an email from OpenSea saying the NFTcuba.ART account was blocked "due to activity that goes against our Terms of Service."

    Artists say they've never been told explicitly why their accounts were taken down, and when D'Alerta asked for more details, OpenSea responded that it was "unable to disclose additional details," emails shared with the AP show.

    Some artists theorize that the trading platforms could be doing it out of an overabundance of caution, though others speculate that people who don't like what certain artists have to say about Cuba could have created accounts to flag those artists' profiles.

    D'Alerta and other collective leaders told the AP that the bans have even extended to personal accounts of Cuban artists who don't live on the island.

    Meanwhile, leaders in the Cuban NFT space worry that the deplatforming could have a long-term chilling effect on Cuban digital artists.

    Buying NFTs can already be viewed as risky due to recent instability in the cryptocurrency market, as evidence by the recent collapse of the popular cryptocurrency trading platform FTX and the criminal charges against its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

    It could be viewed as even more of a risk for those buying from Cuban artists, said D'Alerta, because the art could later disappear from the big platforms.

    "It's heart-wrenching and it's unfortunate," he said. "It's another letdown, you know. Another realization that they're not part of the world's community. You can't participate,' is basically what (NTF platforms) are saying."

    CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

    Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

    The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

    BREAKING

    BREAKING

    The New Brunswick RCMP is asking people to stay away from the Starkey Road area in Long Creek, N.B., as they search for an armed teenager.

    An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

    Canada

    • The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      The New Brunswick RCMP is asking people to stay away from the Starkey Road area in Long Creek, N.B., as they search for an armed teenager.

    • For the last seven-and-half months, Toronto resident Heather McArthur has been living out what she describes as her 'worst nightmare.' On Feb. 7, her then three-year-old son Jacob along with his father Loc Phu 'Jay' Le departed for what was supposed to be a week-long visit to Vietnam to celebrate the Lunar New Year with family, McArthur says.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      Michael Ford, Ontario's minister of citizenship and multiculturalism, says he is taking a leave of absence from cabinet to prioritize his health.

    • Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.

    • Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

    World

    Politics

    Health

    • A Nova Scotia woman has applied for a medically assisted death, saying after years of battling to receive out-of-country surgery for an illness that causes 'indescribable' pain, she struggles to maintain the will to live.

    Sci-Tech

    Entertainment

    • It will be the last show for longtime children's TV star Ron (Buck Shot) Barge as a memorial is held Friday in Calgary.

    • Viewers of Jeopardy got a chance to test their knowledge of trivia about B.C.'s biggest city Wednesday night.

    Business

    Lifestyle

    Sports

    • Agreement in principle has been reached to build a new NHL arena at LeBreton Flats has been reached between the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission (NCC), the two sides announced Friday.

    • F1 star Max Verstappen punished over bad word

      Formula One points leader Max Verstappen was ordered to 'accomplish some work of public interest' after uttering an inappropriate word Thursday at the news conference ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

    • The Winnipeg Jets have some huge holes to fill on both offence and defence this season.

    Autos

    Local Spotlight

    They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

    A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

    Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

    It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

    A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

    David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

    Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

    • New Democrat Leader David Eby has launched his British Columbia election campaign a day early, making the key battle ground of Surrey his first stop.

    • The seats from a stolen e-bike that was customized for a Surrey, B.C., child with complex health needs have been recovered – but the bike itself has yet to be found.

    • Thousands of protesters are expected to march into downtown Vancouver on Friday, demanding more action from their government to address the growing climate crisis.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      Michael Ford, Ontario's minister of citizenship and multiculturalism, says he is taking a leave of absence from cabinet to prioritize his health.

    • The Ford government is considering restricting Ontario municipalities from installing new bike lanes that would require the removal of lanes of traffic, a source confirms to CTV News Toronto.

    • For the last seven-and-half months, Toronto resident Heather McArthur has been living out what she describes as her 'worst nightmare.' On Feb. 7, her then three-year-old son Jacob along with his father Loc Phu 'Jay' Le departed for what was supposed to be a week-long visit to Vietnam to celebrate the Lunar New Year with family, McArthur says.

    • It will be the last show for longtime children's TV star Ron (Buck Shot) Barge as a memorial is held Friday in Calgary.

    • China's ongoing ban on Canadian beef appears to have no end in sight, making it a textbook example of the uncertainty Canadian exporters continue to face in that market.

    • Alberta Health Services says an E. coli outbreak at a daycare in Blackfalds has ended.

    • Agreement in principle has been reached to build a new NHL arena at LeBreton Flats has been reached between the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission (NCC), the two sides announced Friday.

    • Maplewood Secondary School is scheduled to open Monday after receiving a permit Friday morning allowing 50 per cent of the building to be occupied.

    • Ottawa Fire Services says a driver has been safely extricated after being trapped following a two-vehicle collision near a high school in the city’s south end.

    • The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.

    • The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

    • A man who asserted his right to work in French has won his case before the Tribunal, invoking the new provisions of the province's French-language law (Bill 96) to that effect.

    • Mounties say there was an increased police presence in the Emerald Hills area of Sherwood Park on Friday morning as officers searched for a man who is wanted by police.

    • Alberta Health Services says an E. coli outbreak at a daycare in Blackfalds has ended.

    • One person has been charged and an arrest warrant has been issued for a second in connection with an Alberta Emergency Alert earlier this week.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      The New Brunswick RCMP is asking people to stay away from the Starkey Road area in Long Creek, N.B., as they search for an armed teenager.

    • A Nova Scotia woman has applied for a medically assisted death, saying after years of battling to receive out-of-country surgery for an illness that causes 'indescribable' pain, she struggles to maintain the will to live.

    • A black bear that was tranquilized in a park in Dartmouth, N.S., has been released back into the wild, according to the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (DNRR).

    • The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

    • A Manitoba veterinary clinic has two new ways of figuring out what’s causing a horse to be lame.

    • Manitoba's government says it will encourage the development of renewable energy in the province while acknowledging fossil fuels aren't going away any time soon.

    • Arguments between UR Pride and the Government of Saskatchewan on the Parents’ Bill of Rights will be moving ahead to the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan beginning on Monday, Sept. 23.

    • Driving into the tunnels of Nutrien's Rocanville mine, the largest potash mine in the world by production volume, feels like driving down a lonely highway in the middle of the night.

    • Levels of hydrogen sulfide gas are being monitored at Brantford Collegiate Institute after a leak in their geothermal system.

    • Ontario police say they have arrested four members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (MC) and seized a number of firearms after an alleged assault and robbery in Hamilton in July.

    • The second-degree murder trial of Thomas Hamp is being adjourned until December so an expert witness central to the trial can testify.

    • A 69-year-old woman from Outlook, Saskatchewan is dead and three people are injured after a truck and SUV collided on Highway 15 on Thursday.

    • A gym teacher at a private Christian school in Saskatoon has been charged. Terra MacEwan, 44, is charged with assault with a weapon. A Saskatoon mother who spoke with CTV News says her autistic son was MacEwan's victim.

    • Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.

    • Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

    • Two people emerged unhurt after a float plane had a hard landing late Friday morning on Lake Temiskaming.

    • The Elgin Community Health Hub, operated by the Thames Valley Family Health Team, is accepting new patients to a model where doctors are rarely seen.

    • Members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and supportetrs greatly outnumbered the people attending a '1 Million March 4 Children' event along Central Avenue.

    • Today, the 71 year old is marking 50 years a paramedic. He said he never aspired to move into management or a desk job, he enjoys being on the road, helping patients too much.

    • Two men from Barrie have been charged after a deadly shooting at a park in Keswick on Wednesday.

    • Provincial police are investigating vandalism in Huntsville after the "senseless destruction" of flower displays along Main Street East.

    • A 17-year-old from Markham is facing serious charges after an August 11 shooting at a party in Caledon.

    • Windsor police say a 25-year-old mother has been charged with the drowning death of her 5-year-old child in the family’s backyard pool.

    • There is no threats to public safety following an incident involving a gun at a local high school.

    • A LaSalle couple has won $1 million after buying a ticket for the Aug. 13 LottoMax draw.

    • New Democrat Leader David Eby has launched his British Columbia election campaign a day early, making the key battle ground of Surrey his first stop.

    • The Old Man Lake wildfire near Sooke is the only one currently burning on Vancouver Island. It’s a region of the province that this year saw a drastic drop in blazes in the backcountry.

    • The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC) has declared a state of emergency in all 14 of its member First Nations due to a mental health and opioid crisis.

    • A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.

    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

    • Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.

    • A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.

    • A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.

    • Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.

    • Ontario Provincial Police say three suspects from southern Ontario have been charged and drugs worth $300,000 have been seized following a traffic stop Sept. 16.

    • A Brampton driver, 27, was charged this week when northern Ontario police stopped the SUV he was driving on Highway 17 after a reported shooting and found more than $100,000 in cash.

    • A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.

    N.L.

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.

    Stay Connected
    Follow CTV News