Invisible watermark-protected digital photos sell for over $10,000 at a 10props auction

MOSCOW, Aug. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 10props, a new digital platform for art creators and lovers, closed the first-in-history auction of digital artworks selected by the votes of the global internet community. For three months, thousands of people from over 100 countries voted to choose the top 100 images from more than 5,000 submitted ones. The public cast their votes by "propping" (liking) the artworks of their choice. To take part in the auction, photographers and illustrators had to comply with two key requirements ? the uploaded artwork had to be unique (no internet duplicates allowed) and include no illegal content. On July 29th, one hundred artworks, which collected the highest number of "props," were admitted to the auction. The auction bidding lasted for three days and closed late on August 1st. Overall, 60 artworks have been sold to digital art collectors. The average price for the auctioned artwork exceeded $1,000, with the "Violinist" by Kobby Dallas from Ghana sold for $12 thousand, and the "Red Airplane" by Katerina Semerova from Ukraine for $11 thousand. Those were the two highest-priced artworks that bidders were fighting for until the last minutes of the auction. This level of hammer prices is comparable to the sales of photographs at the world's premier auction houses. The selling artists, both professional and amateur, came from 21 countries, including the US and Nepal, Turkey and Armenia, Serbia and Nigeria, UK and Russia, Hong Kong and India, Ghana and Latvia.

The digital artworks acquired at 10props are unique because they are protected by steganography, an invisible watermark added to the image on a pixel level. Prior to being qualified for the auction and uploading the photos, all artists had to officially confirm that they had deleted the originals of their artworks from other digital platforms, thus making each artist on 10props liable to the potential buyer. The founders believe they have finally created a truly realistic and honest process to secure the authenticity of digital artwork.

10props.com is owned and operated by 10props, Inc. 

SOURCE 10props