With Gursky’s Rhine II setting the all-time auction record paid for a photograph last month, a lot of attention has been paid to the top selling photos at an auction.
I like the variety and surreal price tags attached to these images, many of which would not even cause me to pause in a museum.
1. Andreas Gursky
Rhine II, 1999
$4,3m
Christie’s New York, November 2011
2. Cindy Sherman
Untitled #96, 1981
£2.4m ($3,9m)
Christie’s New York, May 2011
3. Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboy), c.2001–2002
£2.1 ($3,401,000)
Sotheby’s New York, November 2007
4. Andreas Gursky
99 Cent II Diptychon, 2001
£2.07 ($3,346,456)
Sotheby’s London, February 2007
5. Edward Steichen
The Pond-Moonlight, 1904
£1.9 ($2,928,000)
Sotheby’s New York, February 2006
6. Unknown photographer
Billy the Kidd,1879–80
£1.4 ($2,300,000)
Brian Lebel’s Old West Show & Auction in Denver, June 2011
7. Dmitry Medvedev
Kremlin of Tobolsk, 2009
£1.1m ($1,750,000)
January 2010, Christmas Yarmarka, Saint Petersburg.
8. Edward Weston
Nude, 1925
£1 ($1,609,000)
Sotheby’s New York, April 2008
9. Alfred Stieglitz
Georgia O’Keeffe (Hands), 1919
£923,000 ($1,470,000)
Sotheby’s New York, February 2006
10. Alfred Stieglitz
Georgia O’Keeffe Nude, 1919
£854,000 ($1,360,000)
Sotheby’s New York, February 2006