8. Rhein II by Andreas Gursky priced at $4.3 Million
In 2011, after a collector purchase it for $4.3 million at Christine’s New York auction, the Rhein II became the most expensive photograph ever sold.
The photographer who took the picture was a visual artist from Germany, Andreas Gursky.
He is famous for his landscape-color and large-format photographs.
Andreas often admitted that he relies on digital manipulation to achieve the result shown in the pictures.
In fact, Rhein II involved the digital removal of a factory building and people walking their dogs at the River Rhine. Gursky admitted, “Paradoxically, this view of the Rhine cannot be obtained in situ; a fictitious construction was required to provide an accurate image of a modern river.”
In 2014, Peter Lik’s Phantom, reportedly selling for $6.5 million, may have supplanted Rhein II as the most expensive photograph ever sold.
