The Most Expensive Photographs Ever Sold

1. Andreas Gursky: " 99 Cent II Diptychon" , 2001
£1,700,000 ($3,346,456)
Sotheby's London , February 2007
The sale of this colorful work was a milestone in the Art market, as it was not only the most expensive photography ever sold, but also almost triplicated the auction record for a contemporary photography

Gustave Le Gray: " Tree" 1855
$513,500
Sotheby's New York , October 1999
Second work by Le Gray in this list. The French photographer created a group of Works studying the effects of the light on a tree, and this work is one of the most accomplished.

Diane Arbus: " Identical twins, Roselle , New Jersey", 1967
$478,400
Sotheby's New York, April 2004
A strange and almost disturbing photo depicting two young twin sister in almost identical pose, said to inspire the terrible "ghost twins" in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"

Edward Steichen: " The pond - moonlight", 1904
$2,928,000
Sotheby's New York , February 2006
The 41- 50.8 cm . photograph, which remembers me of Ralph Albert Blakelock's nightscapes, was previously in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, owner of another of the three copies of the work

Joseph Philibert Girault de Prangey: " 113 Athènes, Temple de Júpiter ", 1842
£500,000 ($922,488)
Christie's London , May 20th 2003
Girault de Prangey was a French draughtsman and photographer whose works are extremely valuable as they are the earliest surviving visual documents of archaeological places such as Syria or the Acropolis

Richard Prince: " Untitled (Cowboy)", 1989
$1,248,000
Christie’s New York, November 2005
Richard Prince’s Untitled (Cowboy) was previously the most expensive photograph in the world. The photograph can be seen as destroying the American cowboy myth. The cowboy is a stand-in for the artist himself, endlessly running off into the sunset. This most expensive photograph in the world creates a desire to experience rather than worry about material value of things.

Gustave Le Gray: " The Great Wave, Sete", 1857
$838,000
Sotheby's London , October 1999
Le Gray is arguably the most important French photographer of the 19th Century. This beautiful work was previously in the Jammes Collection until it was auctioned by Sotheby's