Millennium Sapphire Studios Bridges NFTs into the Real World with Gemstone Carvings

4 min readAug 25, 2022

Millennium Sapphire Studios is bridging NFTs into the real world with a new Millennium Sapphire-inspired NFT project. NFT collectors will get the chance to own Millennium Sapphire-inspired NFTs paired with lapis lazuli carvings based on those on the surface of the Millennium Sapphire itself. This new generation of NFTs features digital and physical elements, allowing collectors to draw more value from their purchases.

But first, let’s recap a few details.

What is the Millennium Sapphire?

The Millennium Sapphire is a carved blue sapphire that celebrates the high points of human civilization over the last 5,000 years. The carvings on the Sapphire are 134 representations of extraordinary individuals such as Johann Bach, Leonardo da Vinci, Socrates, and Alexander the Great. They also honor outstanding human achievements like the Great Wall of China, the three Pyramids of Giza, and the Colosseum. Their history will live on for centuries through the Millennium Sapphire, securely stored in an undisclosed bank vault in the US.

The Millennium Sapphire is tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain, and its security token, $MSTO, is listed on INX, XT.com, IX Swap, and Cryptosx.

When was it Carved?

The concept of carving the sapphire was originally conceived in 1998, and the carving process ended in 2000 under the direction of renowned artist, Alessio Boschi. Boschi and his team of sculptors first carved all the 134 representations on blue lapis lazuli before undertaking the actual carving work on the sapphire.

What are NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets representing unique digital or real-world objects such as property deeds, in-game weapons, music, videos, and art on the blockchain. NFTs are non-fungible, meaning one NFT cannot be interchanged with another.

The New Generation of Millennium Sapphire-Inspired NFTs

The new project introduces second-generation Millennium Sapphire-inspired NFTs featuring digital and physical elements. Each NFT produced will be paired with an identical physical carving created using untreated natural blue lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. The NFTs will be digital illustrations of the topic, as a lapis carving.

Previous NFTs from Millennium Sapphire Studios like Moon Man, the Ace of Spades, and the Medallion collection solely represented digital media. Therefore, this will be the first time Millennium Sapphire Studios pairs physical works of art that exist in the real world with their purely digital NFTs.

The project will kick off with 4 limited edition sets of 10 identical lapis carvings inspired by the Millennium Sapphire. They include:

The Parthenon Temple

The Parthenon temple epitomizes the grandeur of the ancient Greek empire. It houses the great statue of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The Parthenon sits on a compound of several temples called the Acropolis of Athens. Although the temple is now in ruins, it remains a forceful symbol of Athenian culture and ancient Greece, which still influence our lives today. It was built between 447 and 432 BC.

Each of the 10 physical carvings of the Parthenon Temple will be paired with a digital representation of the Parthenon temple in the form of a non-fungible token.

The Mayan Temples

The Mayan temples are grand and ornate places of veneration and sacrifice that stand above the surrounding jungle. They are among the most famous pieces of architecture from ancient Americas and made up the religious culture of the Mayan civilization which spread from Southern Mexico through Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador to Nicaragua from the 7th to 16th centuries. While the Mayan civilization no longer exists, the Maya people can still be found in the same countries today. The influence of the Mayan culture continues to echo through present-day contemporary society.

Each of the 10 Mayan temple physical carvings will be paired with a digital representation of the Mayan temple in the form of an NFT.

The Colosseum

The Colosseum was the largest amphitheater during the reign of the Roman empire. Over 50,000 people assembled inside this iconic structure to view gladiator fights, animal hunts, and prisoner executions. It took almost 10 years to construct this massive amphitheater. Today, the Colosseum is one of Rome’s greatest tourist attractions, and it was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World in 2007. Ancient Roman architecture, as seen on the Colosseum, lives on in modern Western civilization thanks to the use of massive pillars and arches to construct amazing and appealing buildings.

The 10 Colosseum physical carvings will each be paired with a digital representation of the Colosseum in the form of an NFT.

The Vitruvian Man

Vitruvian Man is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci completed around 1490. The drawing attempted to describe the principles of a Roman architect known as Vitruvius, who believed the perfect proportions of the human body could be carried over to architecture. This quintessential image has immensely influenced western culture and has been repurposed in illustrations and advertisements regarding health and medicine.

The 10 physical carvings of the Vitruvian Man will each be paired with a digital representation of the Vitruvian Man in the form of an NFT.