The top most expensive photographs ever sold in the world:
The record for the world’s most expensive photograph to date is an image by Andreas Gursky’s ‘Rhine II’ 1999, which sold at the Christie’s Auction House in New York, on November the 8th 2011, for a staggering $4.3 million (£2.7 million). Gursky says that is his favourite photograph,“It says a lot using the most minimal means … for me it is an allegorical picture about the meaning of life and how things are.” Christie’s described it as “a dramatic and profound reflection on human existence and our relationship to nature on the cusp of the 21st century”.
Yet he actually carefully digitally removed any ordinary features such as – dog walkers, cyclists, a factory building, until it was bleak enough to satisfy him. Then shouldn’t we really call this art rather than a photograph?
Folllow the link to see the other images:
In May 2011, Cindy Sherman broke the record for the world’s most expensive photograph titled; ‘Untitled #96’, 1981, sold for $3.89 million. Christie’s confirmed that this was a record for a photograph at auction, previously held by Andreas Gursky’s “99 Cent II Diptychon,” which fetched $3.35 million in 2006. Sherman also had another high profile sale, with her work “Untitled #153,” from 1985 reaching $2.7 million in 2010.
Third is Richard Prince’s $3.4 million Untitled (Cowboy) photograph, which sold at the prestigious Sotheby’s evening contemporary art sale on November 14th, 2007.
The fourth most expensive photograph most expensive photograph sold is again by Andreas Gursky, called the 99 Cent II Diptychon (2001), which is an image of a discount store showing the cluttered interior. This photograph sold for $3,346,456 in February 2007 at the Sothebys London Auction.
This photograph by Edward Steichen entitled ‘The Pond – Moonlight’, taken in 1904 and sold for $2,928,000 in Feburary 2006 at Sothebys New York auction.
Taken by President Dmitry Medvedev, which was entitled ‘Kremlin of Tobolsk’, taken of a fortress in a Siberian town and this sold for $1,750,000 in January 2010, Saint Petersburg.
This image is by Edward Weston, which was entitled ‘Nude’, taken in 1925 and sold for $1,609,000 in April 2008, which was again sold at the Sothebys New York auction.
The eighth most expensive image is by Alfred Stieglitz, ‘Georgia O’Keeffe’ (Hands) 1919, which sold for $1,470,000 in February 2006 at the Sotheby’s New York auction. Below are the top five most expensive images in order.
