Reserved works
Your last works, reserved.
An artist teaches an AI their hand and their mind while they are alive, then decides how many works it may ever make: ten, twenty, forty. Collectors bid for those works today. They can only be created after the artist is gone, live, in front of the collector's eyes.
Press Create. A work that has never existed begins.
Made only once
Each work is created at the moment its owner presses Create. Nobody, not even Eternix, has seen it before. It is never made again.
Within the artist's rules
The artist fixes the number of works, the themes, the materials and what is never allowed. The AI can't step outside them, and there will never be a 21st of 20.
The artist is paid now
The reserved works are auctioned while the artist is alive. They receive every euro of the winning bid today, for works that will exist tomorrow.
How it works
From a life's work to the last ones
Five steps. The first four happen while the artist is alive. The last one waits for as long as it has to.
The artist builds their core
Over a few months
Guided interviews about how they work and why: what they look for, what they reject, the stories behind the works. Their voice and their face, recorded. Every work they choose to include, photographed or scanned. This is their Identity Core, encrypted and owned by them.
The AI learns their hand
The artist decides when it's right
A style model is trained on their works, for them alone. The artist looks at hundreds of test works and keeps saying "no, not like that" until it says something only they would say. Nothing goes further until they sign: "This is me."
They write the rules
Their will, for the AI
How many works, ever. Which themes, colours, sizes and materials. How each one may become physical: a print, a weave, an etching. What is never allowed. Who receives the money from resales after their death.
The reserved works are auctioned
While they are alive
One by one, each reserved work goes to auction: "Work 7 of 20". The winning collector owns that work's sealed place. The artist receives the full winning bid. The model keeps learning from their new work for as long as they keep making it.
After: the seal, then the creation
When the time comes
Once their death is confirmed by an official certificate, the model is sealed forever and its fingerprint published. Then each collector presses Create and watches their work appear, stroke by stroke, while the artist's own voice talks about what it is doing. It is signed into a public register, and the collector can print it, show it and sell it.
The moment
It happens in front of you
Alone at home, or in a gallery with people watching. The collector presses Create, and a work that has never existed starts to appear: first the ground, then the gestures, then the last touch. The artist's voice, from their own interviews, says what it is choosing and why.
Every work comes with its record
- Its number: "Work 7 of 20". The register shows which numbers exist, and the count can never grow.
- The sealed model: the fingerprint of the exact model the artist approved, published the day it was sealed. Nobody can retrain it or swap it afterwards.
- The moment: when it was created, for whom, and the unique starting point the model drew from.
- The rules it was made under, and how it may become physical.
For artists
Decide now what may be made in your name
- Paid now. You receive 100% of each winning bid, while you are alive.
- Your rules, forever. The number of works and what they may be. Nothing outside them is ever "yours".
- Protection against imitation. Anyone can already copy a style with AI. Only your reserved works carry your approval, your number and your seal.
- Income after you. You choose a share of every resale for your heirs, a foundation or your village.
- Your archive, done properly. Your core keeps your works, your words and your voice together, for your family and your future collectors.
For collectors
Own a work that does not exist yet
- You bid for one numbered work by an artist you love, and help them while they are alive.
- You wait. It might be years or decades. It is a work for the future, not a product for next month.
- You create it. When the time comes, you press Create and see it born, in their voice.
- It's yours. You may print it once, in the format the artist chose, show it and sell it. Each sale pays the share the artist set.
- Not an investment. You are buying one artwork to be created, not a share of anything. Its value is the art.
Keeping the promise
Built to last longer than all of us
A reserved work is a promise that may have to be kept fifty years from now. These are the safeguards we are building it on.
- Death is confirmed officially. Only a death certificate, checked with the artist's estate or a notary, opens the seal. A missed check-in never does.
- The model is frozen. At death the approved model is sealed and its fingerprint published. Works are made by the model the artist approved, never by a newer or "better" one.
- A copy held in escrow. The sealed model, the code that runs it and the rules are deposited outside Eternix, so the works can still be created if Eternix ever isn't here.
- One register. Every reserved work, who holds it and whether it has been created. Anything else claiming to be "by" the artist is not.
- No resale before creation. A reserved work can't be traded while it is still sealed. This is art, not a bet on anyone's life.
- The artist can change the rules before a sale, not after. Once a collector has bid on them, they stay as they were.
The money
The artist keeps every euro of the bid
Eternix adds a service fee of 15% on top, paid by the buyer, like an auction house's buyer's premium. The artist sets a reserve price and the resale share; nothing else is taken from them.
Example: work 7 of 20
| Winning bidPaid to the artist, in full | €4,000 |
| Eternix service fee, 15%Paid by the collector | €600 |
| The collector pays | €4,600 |
Later, if the collector sells the created work for €9,000 and the artist chose an 8% resale share, €720 goes to whoever the artist named.
Questions
What people ask first
Isn't this a bet on the artist dying?
No. The artist designs it, like a will: their last works, reserved for the people who love their art. A collector can't resell a sealed work, so there is nothing to trade on. And many collectors hope the wait is a long one: it means the artist is still alive and still teaching the model.
Is it really the artist's work?
It is the work of the model the artist trained, tested and approved, within the rules they wrote. Not their hand on the canvas, but their eye, their choices and their signature on what may be made. Every record says exactly that, honestly.
What if the AI makes something ugly?
The artist approved the range of what the model can make, after seeing hundreds of examples, so even the plainest result is still theirs. And just like an artist's own works, some will be loved more than others. That is part of the moment.
How does a digital work become physical?
The way the artist chose: a print on paper or canvas, a weave from their workshop, a plate etched by their studio, a plotter drawing in ink. Each work may become one physical piece, made to the artist's specification.
What if Eternix no longer exists?
The sealed model, the code to run it and the rules are held in escrow outside Eternix, with a notary, a foundation or the artist's estate, so a work can still be created and recorded without us.
Can anyone become an Eternix artist?
We start with established artists who already have collectors, a body of work large enough to learn from, and a reason to care about what happens to their name. Write to us if that's you, or someone you represent.
Who owns the copyright?
The law on works made by AI is still settling, and it differs by country. We're finalising the terms with art lawyers before the first auction. What you will always own is the created work, its record, and the right to print and sell it as the artist allowed.