Fact Checking: The Most Expensive Photographs Sold at Auction

Photography At Auction has compiled an annual covering the 25 photography auctions from the past 12 months, as well as data analysis, industry news and a review of the top 50 Most Expensive Photographs Sold at Auction. 

During research for the upcoming Digest, it became apparent that the previously published lists of the most expensive photographs to be sold at auction are wrong. These lists can be found all over the internet with any number of inaccuracies, including Gustave Le Gray’s The Great Wave, Sete almost exclusively reported across the internet as selling for $625 more than its actual hammer price, or Gilbert & George’s Red Morning (Hell) which sold for $36,489 more than its reported value in US dollars. Judging from the disparities it seems that some publications have rounded results up or miscalculated currency exchange on the day of sale.

Where possible we set about finding the original hammer prices as listed by the auction houses, before calculating their worth in US dollars according to historic registers of currency exchanges on the day of sale. This resulted in a restructuring of the top 50 list of most expensive photographs to be sold at auction, shifting Wolfgang Tillman’s Freishwimmer 84 from 41st in the list down to 43rd, while Man Ray’s Noire et Blanche moved up from 14th position to 8th.

It is clear how easily false reporting can become fact, and how much content on the internet is regurgitated. 

To review the revised and edited list – the only known definitive catalogue of the 50 most expensive photography sales – you can pre-order your electronic copy of the Photography at Auction Digest here, or buy your print copy here.