The Airborne Collection:
The bravery and brutality of World War II, captured in high art
You are invited to become part of a unique art project to commemorate the 80th memorial of Operation Market Garden. Dutch artist Albert Ziëck has created a series of brand new paintings, taking inspiration from the Allied plan that infamously failed to secure the bridge over the Rhine near Arnhem. The heroics, the desperation, the leaders and soldiers going into battle: each canvas tells another story.
30 stories, 30 paintings. We call this “the Airborne Collection”.
Highest quality art print + digital collectible
Each original, individual painting will be reproduced in a one-time, limited run of 300 high resolution NFTs. Upon purchasing a piece, you will also receive a high quality art print of that NFT on canvas, exactly the same size as the original artwork. Once the run is gone, it’s gone. There won’t be any re-issues.
Albert Ziëck’s original paintings are kept in a vault and donated to various charities and dignitaries.
Part of the proceeds will be donated to charitable causes, such as Vereniging Oranjedag Heelsum.
Pricing & retail locations
Each NFT + art canvas print from the Airborne Collection will retail for €199,00 / 0,058 ETH (including tax and shipping for the canvas print).
To emphasize: for this price you will receive both the NFT and a physical, high quality reproduction of the painting (the same as the NFT).
Once the collection becomes available, you can mint the NFT on this site. The collection will be featured in a series of Fletcher Hotels along the Airborne route, following in the footsteps of the Allied troops that liberated the region.
Operation Market Garden
During the Second World War, between the 17th and 27th of September 1944, the Allied forces launched Operation Market Garden.
The goal of this military operation was to establish a safe route into Germany by crossing the river Rhine in the Netherlands. The “Market” part of the operation to capture nine Dutch bridges was executed by British and US airborne forces, followed by the “Garden” part where land units would cross them in quick succession.
Despite the rescue of several major Dutch cities, including Eindhoven and Nijmegen, the operation failed to achieve its most important objective: capturing the Arnhem bridge. Immortalized in the famous Hollywood movie “A Bridge Too Far”, Operation Market Garden was an important part of the Allied campaign and an historic moment in Dutch 20th century history.
Introducing Albert Ziëck
Albert Ziëck (1960), the artist behind the paintings in the Airborne Collection, is a self-taught painter.
Working from the Decozzi studio in Renkum (The Netherlands), he describes his style as “strong and robust”. Often incorporating painted letters and words in his art, every new piece brings another surprise. The specially made works of art he has made for the Airborne Collection are sure to thrill art lovers as well as history enthusiasts and anyone interested in the Second World War.
You can read more about Albert Ziëck on his official website.
Frequently asked questions
The Airborne Collection consist of 30 paintings. Each individual painting will be reproduced in a one-time, limited run of 300 NFTs + high quality art prints on canvas, exactly the same size as the original artwork.
No, there won’t be any re-issues. Once the run is gone, it’s gone.
An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger. Types of NFT data units may be associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and audio.
The term “non-fungible” refers to the fact that an item is unique and not interchangeable. On the flip side things, cash and cryptocurrency are fungible. You could swap a dollar for another dollar and nothing would really change. NFTs are unique.
A link to the minting page will be added on this website when the collection is launched.
MetaMask is the most popular digital wallet in the NFT space. MetaMask is a browser extension (available in Chrome, Firefox and Brave) that is used to store, send, and receive Ethereum and ERC20. In other words, it allows users to make Ethereum transactions through regular websites. MetaMask can be used to store keys for Ethereum cryptocurrencies only.
Friends of the Airborne Collection
The Airborne collection is supported by:
