$4.3 Million Photograph

**Mergie Master** · 11-14-2011, 01:22 AM

This photo titled 'Rhein II' just sold for $4.3 million. It was taken in 1999 by a guy named Andreas Gursky. This is proof that some people have more money than sense. But if that's what the buyer wanted to spend his money on, it's his right to do so. ~ Mergie

Andreas Gursky's Rhein II sets photo record

Rhein II is one of an edition of six works

An image of the Rhine by German artist Andreas Gursky has fetched $4.3m (£2.7m) at Christie's New York, setting an auction record for a photograph.

Glass-mounted panoramic colour print Rhein II, created in 1999, is one of an edition of six works.

Others hang at New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Modern.

It beat the previous record of $3.9m (£2.5m) achieved by an untitled 1981 colour print by Cindy *******, who is the subject of all her own works.
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The viewer is not invited to consider a specific place along the river but rather an almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water as it navigates the landscape”
Christie's

Gursky's print had a pre-sale estimate of $2.5m-$3.5m (£1.6m-£2.2m).

Rhein II is the largest of the six photographs, which are produced in various sizes.

As well as in New York and London, other photographs in the edition are housed in Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne and Glenstone art museum in the US.

Gursky has spoken of "a particular place with a view over the Rhine which has somehow always fascinated me, but it didn't suffice for a picture as it basically constituted only part of a picture".

He said he "carried this idea for a picture around with me for a year-and-a-half".

"In the end I decided to digitalise the pictures and leave out the elements that bothered me," he added.

Christie's said the viewer was "not invited to consider a specific place along the river, but rather an almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water as it navigates the landscape".

**Mergie Master** · 11-14-2011, 01:26 AM

I could have saved the buyer a lot of money. I would have personally flown to Germany, taken several photos of the Rhein, paid to have them developed, then hand delivered them to the buyer. All for a mere $1.7 million.

**Lowcountry Boy** · 11-14-2011, 09:01 AM

Hell there ain't even a sea monster or nothing in it.

**mohill** · 11-14-2011, 09:05 AM

I wouldn't have paid $6 at a yard sale for it.

**Saltydog235** · 11-14-2011, 09:13 AM

Somebody needs to photoshop some rednecks in a bass boat, a pontoon with fat old men or something in that thing to make is something more than boring.

**Lowcountry Boy** · 11-14-2011, 09:17 AM

That's better.

**duckduckdog** · 11-14-2011, 09:26 AM

I just drove the price up and backed out at 4.2M....

**richardp17** · 11-14-2011, 11:27 AM

I was going to throw my bid in at $4.7 but the daggum dial-up cut out on me

**trentsmith** · 11-14-2011, 11:40 AM

That's a $0.29 photograph right there.

**duckduckdog** · 11-14-2011, 11:49 AM

okay - seriously, am I missing something? THAT is the photo that brought 4.3M? And it took him a 1.5 years to decide to take it? And that's what he got? And then he had to photoshop out the stuff he didn't like? And seriously, this is what he got?

Think I need to book a flight to the Rhein.....