The solver is getting ready to publish his own walk-thru explaining how he decoded the painting. And when you read it you will see that 1) It didn't require to be brute forced. 2) I'll quote him here as he hasn't published the document yet, but he says "Number of permutations of the three data channels multiplied by the number of possible interpretations of channel states yields in 48 options."

So after reading how befuddled people are on this thread that there were too many possibilities and it wasn't fair, I see why this person walked away with the prize and I think he did a fine job. I'm looking forward to his published walk-thru, as it shows he is a brilliant and logical thinker.