World’s Most Expensive Photograph Auctioned for $4.3 Million at Christie’s

Andreas Gursky’s photograph entitled “Rhine II” has just been auctioned for more than US$ 4 million at Christie’s Auction House. The piece is now the world’s most expensive photograph, beating off Cindy Sherman’s print—which was previously auctioned for US$3.9 million.

Supposed to be sold at US$3.5 million at the highest, “Rhein II” turned out to fetch an actual price of US$4,388,500.  Depicting a secluded section of the Rhein river, the photograph is a Plexiglass-mounted chromogenic color print. The piece is actually an edition of six photographs—the five other pieces are currently being displayed on some of the world’s biggest art museums.

The photographer, Andreas Gursky, is a German visual artist. Born in 1955, he is renowned for his enormous architechture and landscape color photographs. In addition, the “Rhein II” piece is 73×143 inches in size. popphoto.com