Hacker Cinema
Fake or Fortune?
2011 · TV series · documentary · 60 min episodes · 14 seasons
Journalist Fiona Bruce teams up with art expert Philip Mould to investigate the provenance or attribution of notable artworks.
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There's a fairly sensationalist TV show in the UK where art owners submit pieces they believe to have been misattributed works of note to a panel of experts who adjudicate (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mxxz6 - Fake or Fortune).
By far my favourite bit is the restoration where they painstakingly remove the varnish that's been left to fester over the years. Obviously not easily done on the Mona Lisa but the difference is absolutely remarkable. That's actually another point that makes me disagree with the "value is in the craft" argument. Art is not static, it changes over time.
If you're interested, this episode has a great restoration, starting somewhere in the middle and revealed at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv6m8aHAtTM
You are correct that the NFT is valuable because the artist says it is (though ideally, artists should be digitally signing their works with their private key, which is a whole other thing).
What the blockchain provides, however, which is incredibly valuable in the art world (not saying this isn't vapid, btw) is provenance in a secure verifiable way that would likely extend past the lifespan of any centralized company.
Showing provenance is basically a requirement for any high value work of art, which gets more and more difficult as time goes on and the work changes hands. We're talking timespans of hundreds and thousands of years.
Highly recommend watching the fascinating show "Fake or Fortune" -- on Amazon Prime (at least in the US) -- to really appreciate how much people care about provenance.