Matt Hancock MP promotes NFTs for his former Ukrainian lodgers

Matt Hancock has always had his finger on the pulse. True to form, the former UK health secretary is this week lending her unique personal brand to the promotion of NFTs:

February 27, ‘From Ukraine With Love’, an exclusive NFT collection on @Coinbase_NFT the marketplace is launched to raise money for the humanitarian efforts in Ukraine

Thank you for all your support of this incredible initiative

Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/ljMF9HhXVp

— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) 20 February 2023

admirable. But where does the money go? The text on the Coinbase listing page is not entirely clear:

This [NFT] the collection has been created by British politician and former Secretary of State for Digital Matt Hancock, from the work of Ukrainian artist Oleg Mischenko, to raise money for Ukraine’s humanitarian appeal.

Nor are there many more details in the promo video (also available on TikTok), in which Hancock tells the story of how Iryna Korobkina and her five-year-old daughter fled to the UK from Ukraine in April 2022. Her husband Oleg Mischenko — “not a fighter, an artist” – joined them later, Hancock explains:

To support the war effort, and to support families like Oleg and Iryna, and Mariana, they will be launching an NFT with Coinbase to raise funds. So please support those who have been displaced by this horrific war. Support people like Iryna, and Oleg and Mariana. And support this NFT and this wonderful Ukrainian art.

So who gets the money? Hancock’s spokesman explained that 90 per cent of sales proceeds will be donated to Care International UK’s humanitarian appeal, with 10 per cent going to Mischenko’s family. Coinbase will waive transaction fees, he said, and for Hancock, a good deed is its own reward.

Understanding all this requires some knowledge of Hancock’s domestic arrangements. Seven members of Korobkina’s extended family moved into Hancock’s £2.2ka-a-month rented constituency house in West Suffolk last April. Mischenko joined them in December, after being discharged from the army for medical reasons.

Oleg, Iryna and their daughter moved out of Hancock’s house on Friday. The NFT sale was launched the following Monday.

A press release from Hancock’s parliamentary office quotes Iryna at length as saying how she “would like to thank MP Matt Hancock for opening his home to my family and the people of Great Britain to welcome desperate families like mine in our hour of need”.

(By the way, the Oleg Mischenko quoted by Hancock is apparently also Oleg Mishchenko, a prolific artist whose Saatchi Art profile has more “sold” stickers next to figurative nudes than Ukrainian landscapes.)

In response to our many questions, Hancock’s spokesman issued a statement, much of which was posted on the MP’s personal website soon after.

Matt is incredibly proud of Iryna and Oleg and is honored to support the family with their charity art collection. The family’s spirit and bravery in the face of adversity – like so many Ukrainians – is inspiring and Matt encourages people to help in any way they can. Oleg’s ‘From Ukraine, With Love’ collection is a truly impressive collection of studies of Ukrainian landmarks, many of which have been destroyed by the war.

Slave Ukraine.

Only one of Mischenko’s 386 NFTs has been minted in pixel time. The plaintiff is Tom Duff Gordon, Coinbase’s Davos-compliant vice president of international policy. Perhaps demand will increase after the official launch of the project at the NFT Gallery on Dover Street, in London’s Mayfair, on February 27.

Further reading. . .
What’s the story, blockchain Tory? — FTAV
What’s the story, hunky Tory? — FTAV
NFT Trading Volume Plunges 98% From January — Coindesk