Artist Turns Old Master Paintings Into Bitcoin Art About Money

What happens when 500-year-old paintings meet modern money debates? Artist Lucho Poletti has an answer — and it's rooted in one of the most important days in financial history.

On August 15, 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon ended the dollar's link to gold — meaning paper money could no longer be exchanged for a fixed amount of gold. This created fiat money (currency that has value simply because a government says so, not because it's backed by gold or silver). Exactly 55 years later, Poletti unveiled his art series responding to that moment.

The series, called Ten Decrees, reimagines ten famous paintings:

• Four by Hieronymus Bosch and six by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
• Both artists worked in the 1500s, when Antwerp was a booming financial hub and rulers were debasing coins (lowering the amount of precious metal in coins, making money worth less)
• Each drawing packs in hundreds of tiny figures, printed at 30-by-20 inches in editions of ten

Poletti chose Latin as his theme. The word "fiat" is actually a verb meaning "let it be done" — the same word used in the Bible's creation story. He points out it perfectly describes how fiat money works: an authority declares it, and it exists. Nine of his titles are commands (let there be fury, profit, chaos, folly, hunger, and more), while the tenth, *Ultima Fiat*, means "let it be the last."

Why old paintings for modern money? Poletti explains these artists already knew how to show a whole society going wrong at once — crowds of people each doing something foolish, unaware of the bigger picture. He compares their era to today: silver flooding Europe from the Americas caused prices to rise sixfold over 150 years, ending in a financial crash in 1557.

The series releases new pieces every two weeks, ending January 3, 2027 — the anniversary of Bitcoin's first block. Poletti will present the full work at Bitcoin Amsterdam, November 5–6.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/ten-decrees-old-masters-new-money