But did you know a virtual artwork can also be sold for a staggering amount of money?

Yup, one did just that, having been sold at an auction for almost RM300 million!

Very pricey JPEG image

On Friday (12 March), a digital collage by American artist Beeple was sold for a jaw-dropping USD69.3 million (RM284.6 million) at Christie's auctioneers to an unnamed buyer, AFP reported.

The virtual collage titled "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days", sold in JPEG format, is made up of artwork he created every day for the past 13 years.

The artwork is now the most expensive ever "non-fungible token" (NFT) – which according to Christie's, is a collectible digital asset that uses blockchain technology to turn virtual work into a unique item.

On top of that, "Everydays" was the first purely digital NFT work of art to be auctioned off at a major auction house.

The bidding reportedly started at USD100 (RM410) on 25 February, and when the auction ended on Thursday (11 March), it managed to rake in USD69,346,250.

Here's what the artwork looks like - but be careful not to touch it, you don't want to damage this artwork:

According to AFP, "Everydays" was based on a project that Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelman, started working on in May 2007 when he was a bored digital artist.

He started to create a work of art each day, without interruption, to improve his drawing and graphic design skills, and after 5,000 days, "Everydays" was completed.

His daily pieces started off with a simple image of his uncle, and then slowly progressed to detailed graphic portraits of characters such as Buzz Lightyear, Donald Trump and Michael Jackson.

With the sale of "Everydays", Beeple is now known as one of the top three most valuable living artists in the world.