Lucho Poletti has unveiled a series of ten densely detailed drawings that rework paintings by Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder into a visual examination of money, monetary power and bitcoin. The first work appeared on August 15, 2026, exactly 55 years after Richard Nixon announced the temporary suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold—a suspension that was never reversed.
A monetary history told through old masters
Poletti’s project, titled “Ten Decrees,” draws on four Bosch paintings and six works by Bruegel. The artists worked during a period of expanding banking, credit and speculation, when Antwerp was becoming one of Europe’s major commercial centers. Their crowded compositions placed hundreds of figures in the same scene, allowing viewers to study individual behavior while also observing wider social order and disorder.
That approach has become increasingly relevant to artists working around bitcoin. Earlier projects cited in the source material include Pepenardo’s “Master Cuts Out the Stone,” which reimagined Jan Sanders van Hemessen’s “The Surgeon,” and Carlijn Kingma’s “The Waterworks of Money,” a visual map of the modern monetary system. Like those works, Poletti’s series attempts to make an abstract and interconnected financial system visible in a single frame.
Poletti has created bitcoin-related art since 2017 and has contributed to the Bitcoin Conference art gallery since 2021. His new series uses the Latin word “fiat”—literally, “let it be done”—as its organizing idea. Nine titles issue commands, including “Fiat Lucrum” (“let there be profit”), “Furia Fiat,” “Fiat Ludus,” “Fiat Fames” and “Fiat Moria.” The final title, “Ultima Fiat,” means “let it be the last.”
The release schedule began on August 29, two weeks after the first unveiling, and is due to conclude on January 3, 2027, the anniversary of Bitcoin’s Genesis Block. Five drawings had been released by October 24, with “Fiat Moria,” based on Bruegel’s “Netherlandish Proverbs,” the latest. “Fiat Fames” is scheduled to follow on November 7.
Allegory, detail and the monetary system
Each drawing measures 30 by 20 inches, is produced in an edition of ten and contains hundreds of figures and objects. Arranged in two rows of five, the complete series will span roughly four meters. Inscriptions and visual references are often designed to be discovered only through close inspection.
In “Fiat Lucrum,” Poletti reworks Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” with a system of pipes, reservoirs and flowing liquidity. A tank marked “FRESH LIQUIDITY” contains people enjoying themselves while the valve controlling the flow sits outside the glass. Elsewhere, money presses carry labels such as QE-1, QE-2, QE-3 and QE-∞. The imagery presents monetary policy and new money as forces that affect people who may not be able to see how the system operates.
Other details connect historical monetary events with modern financial language. “Fiat Palea” includes references to Executive Order 6102 and the 1971 closure of the gold-convertibility window. “Fiat Ludus” depicts bubbles associated with 1637, 1720, 1929 and 2008, while price signs contrast dollar amounts that rise with prices denominated in satoshis that fall.
The works also include Satoshi masks, dollar-shaped skulls and plain-faced figures. Poletti says the masks do not represent moral purity; instead, they identify people who are aware of the monetary system. The series presents bitcoin as an available exit without promising that viewers will take it. In “Fiat Moria,” a doorway marked “MONEY ₿ BETTER WORLD” stands open, while a figure pauses outside.
Poletti describes the drawings as “crafted, not generated.” A model trained on earlier examples of his work provides a rough first composition, but he then spends weeks manually adding and revising figures, objects, symbols and text in Photoshop. His stated aim is that the final work should reflect human decisions rather than merely imitate the appearance of an old master.
Bitcoin Amsterdam presentation
According to Bitcoin Magazine, “Ten Decrees” will be shown on the main stage at Bitcoin Amsterdam on November 5–6, 2026, as part of Bitcoin Museum & Art Gallery programming. The exhibition adapts work originally intended for one viewer standing close to a print for a large audience watching LED screens.
Each released drawing will receive a 15-second presentation. The center screen will make a slow pass across the composition, a side screen will show the Bosch or Bruegel source before transitioning to Poletti’s reinterpretation, and another will highlight details that would be difficult to see from a distance. The five released works will play in sequence.
The Netherlands has particular significance for the project. Bosch spent his life in ’s-Hertogenbosch, while Bruegel’s work remains connected to Dutch and Flemish visual culture. The source material also points to Amsterdam’s monetary history: the Bank of Amsterdam opened in 1609 and was initially trusted because its bank guilder was understood to be fully backed. Its premium disappeared after lending to the Dutch East India Company became public, and the bank later declared itself insolvent.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data recorded on October 25, 2026, at 22:39 (+03:30), showed Bitcoin at $80,430.51, down 0.08% over 24 hours and 1.32% over seven days. Aster was priced at $0.7033 at 22:38, down 0.10% over 24 hours but up 1.27% over seven days. POL, listed as Polygon (previously MATIC), stood at $0.08981 at 22:39, up 0.39% over 24 hours and down 0.74% over seven days.
