Entrepreneur Sébastien Bourget found his way into art and collecting via a parallel but far-fetched universe: gaming and Web3. “My background is more in technology, which is an industry I’ve been in for more than 20 years,” he told the Observer during a conversation in the office above his latest project, ArtVerse, a Parisian gallery dedicated to the convergence of contemporary art and new technology. “My first startup was in video games, and then I gradually developed it into a virtual world game where people could make things, like Roblox or Minecraft, called The Sandbox.”
It would become one of the Web3 token gaming companies in the NFT boom: a decentralized metaverse where users create, own, manage, and monetize experiences using NFTs and the SAND token. The company was valued at $1 billion in June 2024, when it raised $20 million in convertible debt led by Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands, with participation from LG Tech Ventures and True Global Ventures. Today, Burgett is the president of the Blockchain Game Alliance, a group of more than 90 companies working to promote blockchain in gaming.
While developing the Sandbox experience, Burgett first approached art – while creating a virtual world, he did not want to neglect culture. “We invited content creators, brands and celebrities – Snoop Dogg, Gucci, TIME, DJs and more – and also began collecting artworks from this digital art movement, mainly associated with blockchain and NFTs, to display within the virtual world early on.”
But he didn’t want to bring art to The Sandbox just to replicate the white-walled museum model. “We felt that in the virtual world, the capabilities should be better than reproducing the physical world,” he explained. The goal was to expand not only what people could do within a virtual world, but also how art could help them shape their symbolic worlds. “We saw art as a form of expression. We displayed it in the game’s social hub and in many other experiences. In a way, it’s like bringing art to the street instead of putting it somewhere inaccessible, so it can speak to people and inspire them.”
Finally, this logic was taken from the virtual world to the physical space. “We wanted to do the same in our office, to inspire employees and everyone who came to visit us when we had events in Paris, and then in other cities,” he said. When they ran out of space in the offices, the idea expanded into a gallery, which became a way to continue showcasing art, discovering artists and connecting people to art and culture.
As he collected NFTs, digital art and then more traditional contemporary pieces, Burgett realized that art could add a new dimension to his entrepreneurship and work in technology by helping him see the world differently. “I have begun to become more and more involved, initially speaking publicly about my role as an art collector, and more recently as someone who actively supports the artists in my collection.”
Burgett’s collection is very personal, as he generally attempts to communicate with the artist before actually purchasing the work. “I would love to know more about their vision, their practices, their framework and their concept,” he said, adding that while there is of course a connection to aesthetics, it is not the be-all and end-all for him. “I’m trying to see how these artists will evolve, and whether what they’re thinking and talking about resonates with me.”
Four years ago, Burgett opened ArtVerse with his co-founder of The Sandbox, Arthur Madrid, to support artists working at the intersection of art and technology who, as he saw it, weren’t receiving much attention or exposure. ArtVerse, based in Paris, has a very diverse program, with artists coming from Hong Kong, Korea, the United States and all over the world. Some of the artists whose work he collected became part of the exhibition programme, which helped introduce them to a wider audience.
Before opening ArtVerse, Borget helped found NFT Factory, a project located in front of the Center Pompidou until 2024, when it closed its physical location. But this space didn’t quite align with his vision. In his view, it has become too focused on showcasing blockchain art and selling non-fungible tokens, rather than supporting artists through solo exhibitions and more sustainable programming. He also felt there was a mismatch between the site and the audience. NFT Factory has strong visibility and steady traffic but is still very attached to the NFT bubble. In contrast, ArtVerse supports a broader, more nuanced conversation about art, technology, and artists’ practices.
For Bourget, the question is no longer whether a work of art qualifies as “digital art” in the narrow sense. “It’s not about the medium. Art here can take different forms: paintings, sculpture, tapestries, video, and sometimes blockchain technology. It’s about the depth of the concept,” he said. “The artists that I collect and showcase are strong in their conceptual framework, so whether they use technology or how they use it, it’s not just about surfing some sort of pesky market.” For him, good digital art is made by artists who think rigorously through science and technology to explore new forms of cultural production relevant to our times, whether ultimately screen-based or not.
He believes the landscape is changing. Art collectors and audiences like him, born in the 1980s and 1990s, carry different cultural genes. Video games, anime, manga, and movies were part of their formative environment, so it’s only natural that the art they look at and collect may engage games, movies, science, or technology more directly than previous generations did. “There’s no longer necessarily resistance to using technology as a medium because it’s been built into our culture for 40 years,” he said. “We grew up with it.”
However, he admits that France has been much slower to accept these new art forms, mostly due to its deep heritage and heavy artistic traditions. “I feel that there is still some resistance because there is a rich art history in France, and many important movements to know and collect, which makes this type of art seem more niche and not yet fully established.”
However, this is also what makes education and physical exhibitions particularly important in his view. According to Bourget, art that is digitally or technologically connected should be experienced off-screen, in a dedicated space where visitors can encounter it in person. ArtVerse is a commercial space, yes, but it is also a place where artists can develop ambitious presentations, educate curious visitors, be visible in the proper Parisian gallery district and elevate their work through installation, documentation and visibility.
When asked if he intended to open a foundation, Bourget said he preferred to focus on the platform he had because building a foundation in France could be complicated. “It’s not the easiest to get the structure right here,” he explained. In the meantime, he is actively involved in supporting artists working at the intersection of art and technology by contributing to books, speaking publicly, co-organizing events and symposiums, and joining museum patron groups such as LACMA’s Digital Council.
It is worth noting that Burgett’s background gives him a different understanding of the infrastructure behind digital ownership, creator economies and virtual worlds, as well as the alternative value chains and sustainability models that many digital artists have already developed – which could be increasingly useful to the wider art world today.
While art and games are often viewed as separate worlds, there is something inherently artistic and creative about games, and many artists working today apply the aesthetics and dynamics of games to their processes. Burgett is particularly interested in these exchanges between video games and contemporary art. He points out that video games are built through creative labor, even if many of these works have not traditionally been treated as collectible by museums. “Everything that goes into pre-visualizing a video game includes character drawings, scenery, etc.,” he said. “Nowadays, a lot of it has been replaced by artificial intelligence, but it is still very much a creative industry, with many creative jobs.” Game art books sell well, and it is widely accepted that games shape culture.
Burgett has seen a bridge forming between the world-building practices shared between the two fields in recent years. “There are more and more artists around the world using video game tools and techniques as a means of expression and to create interactive artworks, but they still have a lot of depth. They may use games to make you think about the state of the world or human nature,” he explained. However, many of these works have been commissioned by or for museums, which offer them directly, not as traditional game cartridges or mobile applications and not for commercial reasons, which means they still belong to a separate sphere of circulation.
At the institutional level, Burgett acknowledged the progress that had been made, but still saw many limitations. “We’ve seen museums like the Center Pompidou show good sensitivity to it. They were among the first museums to collect NFTs, but it’s still not enough.” He feels somewhat isolated as a proponent of digital art. Globally, physical spaces and galleries dedicated to this corner of the art world are scarce, and some online markets have closed. While initiatives like Zero10 at Art Basel or the Digital Sectors in Paris have brought visibility, he is concerned that digital art still often remains removed from the main gallery or is made overly performative, as happened in Miami.
He concluded by saying: “I don’t think that art has to be controversial or create that much noise in order to be appreciated and cared for.” “I try to give a voice and a place to artists without necessarily creating a big, provocative buzz around them every time. What we want is for people to feel progressed.”
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