The negative copy, combined with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s photograph that he gifted to journalist Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın 70 years ago, became the first non-fungible token (NFT) to be registered as a work of art by a state.
The NFT Atatürk photograph received a registration certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic, signed and presented his photograph to journalist Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın to be printed in the newspapers as he did the first interview with him after the Battle of Gallipoli.
Also, a poet, writer and journalist, Ünaydın, served as Afyonkarahisar deputy for the second, third and fourth terms in the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, as the Secretary General of the Presidency and as an ambassador. Ünaydın also permitted Osman Atilla, a poet and writer like himself, to take the photo of the gifted photo.
Osman Atilla, who published the negative copy in some local newspapers in the 1950s and early 1960s, gave it to journalist İbrahim Küçükkurt before his death. Then Küçükkurt handed the negative photograph to journalist Onur Bayram in 2007. Bayram kept the negative version for 14 years in a custom-made box so that it would not be damaged by the effects of light, humidity and time.
He created the digital artwork by transferring the negative photo to the computer during the COVID-19 lockdown and brought it side by side with the positive version. Transforming the new photo into NFT, Bayram said:…
