List of most expensive photographs
Encyclopedia
This is a list of the highest prices paid for photographs (in US dollars
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
unless otherwise stated).
- Andreas GurskyAndreas GurskyAndreas Gursky is a German visual artist known for his enormous architecture and landscape color photographs, often employing a high point of view...
, Rhein IIRhein IIRhein II is a photograph made by German visual artist Andreas Gursky in 1999. In 2011, a print was auctioned for $4.3 million , making it the most expensive photograph ever sold....
(1999), $4,338,500, November 8, 2011, Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
New York. - Cindy ShermanCindy ShermanCindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...
, Untitled #96 (1981), $3,890,500, May 2011, Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
New York. - Andreas GurskyAndreas GurskyAndreas Gursky is a German visual artist known for his enormous architecture and landscape color photographs, often employing a high point of view...
, 99 Cent II Diptychon99 Cent II DiptychonThe artwork 99 Cent II Diptychon from 2001 is a two part photograph made by Andreas Gursky probably in 1999, as the work is sometimes called "99 cent.1999"....
(2001), $3,346,456, February 2007, Sotheby's London auction. A second print of 99 Cent II Diptychon sold for $2.48 million in November 2006 at a New York gallery, and a third print sold for $2.25 million at Sotheby's in May 2006. - Edward SteichenEdward SteichenEdward J. Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo design and a custom typeface...
, The Pond-Moonlight (1904), $2,928,000, February 2006, Sotheby's New York auction. - Unknown photographer, Billy the KidBilly the KidWilliam H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
(1879–80), tintypeTintypeTintype, also melainotype and ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a sheet of iron metal that is blackened by painting, lacquering or enamelling and is used as a support for a collodion photographic emulsion....
portrait, $2,300,000, June 2011, Brian Lebel's Old West Show & Auction. - Dmitry MedvedevDmitry MedvedevDmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...
, Tobolsk KremlinTobolsk KremlinThe Tobolsk Kremlin is the sole stone Kremlin in Siberia. It is located in Tobolsk, Tyumen Oblast, Russia.- History :Tobolsk was founded in 1587. Moscow encouraged the construction of stone buildings there. In 1683-1686, masons sent from Moscow and Veliky Ustyug built the stone St....
(2009), $1,750,000, January 2010, Christmas Yarmarka, Saint Petersburg. - Edward WestonEdward WestonEdward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
, Nude (1925), $1,609,000, April 2008, Sotheby's New York auction. - Alfred StieglitzAlfred StieglitzAlfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
, Georgia O'Keeffe (Hands) (1919), $1,470,000, February 2006, Sotheby's New York auction. - Alfred StieglitzAlfred StieglitzAlfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
, Georgia O'Keeffe Nude (1919), $1,360,000, February 2006, Sotheby's New York auction. - Richard PrinceRichard PrinceRichard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...
, Untitled (Cowboy) (1989), $1,248,000, November 2005, Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
New York auction. - Richard AvedonRichard AvedonRichard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
, DovimaDovimaDorothy Virginia Margaret Juba , later known as Dorothy Horan, and best known as Dovima, was a model during the 1950s....
with elephants (1955), $1,151,976, November 2010, Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
Paris auction. - Edward WestonEdward WestonEdward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
, Nautilus (1927), $1,082,500, April 2010, Sotheby's New York auction. - Peter LikPeter LikPeter Lik is a self-taught Australian landscape photographer. While traveling in Alaska in 1984, Lik began to experiment with panoramic cameras. He is known for his limited editions and his work has been compared to that of legendary photographer Ansel Adams...
, One (2010), $1,000,000, December 2010, Anonymous Collector - Eugène AtgetEugène AtgetEugène Atget was a French photographer noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris....
, Joueur d'Orgue, (1898–1899), $686,500, April 2010, Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
New York auction. - Robert MapplethorpeRobert MapplethorpeRobert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
, Andy Warhol (1987), $643,200, October 17, 2006, Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
New York auction. - Ansel AdamsAnsel AdamsAnsel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, Moonrise, Hernandez, New MexicoMoonrise, Hernandez, New MexicoMoonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico is a photograph by Ansel Adams, taken late in the afternoon on November 1, 1941, from a shoulder of U.S. Route 84....
(1948), $609,600, 2006, Sotheby's New York auction.
External links
- Artnet top ten most expensive photographs, April 2003
- The two most expensive Stieglitz photos, 2006, click thumbnalis to enlarge