Most Expensive Photographs Sold at Auction (All Time)

About This Dataset

Photographic works ranked by hammer price at public auction in millions of USD. Andreas Gursky's large-format photograph Rhein II sold at Christie's New York in 2011 for $4.3 million, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction — a digitally manipulated image of the Rhine river stripped of background elements to produce a meditative horizontal composition that redefined what the auction market was willing to pay for photography as fine art.

Analysis

Phantom (Peter Lik) heads the table on 6.50, ahead of Rhein II (Andreas Gursky) (4.34) and Untitled #96 (Cindy Sherman) (3.89) in Auction Price (Million USD) in 2015. 5.25 separates the highest figure (6.50) from the lowest (1.25). First and second are separated by 2.16, so the leader sits inside the field rather than apart from it. The field is close behind: 5 of the 8 sit at half the leader's figure or above (3.25+).

Source: Wikipedia

Key Findings

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Phantom (Peter Lik) leads in Auction Price (Million USD) with 6.50 in 2015.

📅

2011 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.

↔️

Gap in 2015: Phantom (Peter Lik) is 5.2× larger than Spiritual America (Richard Prince).

Most Expensive Photographs Sold at Auction (All Time)

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Table

Data Insights Below

Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin

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Data Points

8 categories · 5 years

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Top Value

6.50

Phantom (Peter Lik)

Auction Price (Million USD) · 2014

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Metrics

Auction Price (Million USD)

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Period

2007 – 2015

5 years of data

Methodology & source

Data source: Wikipedia
Coverage: 8 entities · 2007–2015 (5 years) · 8 observations
Measure: Auction Price (Million USD)
Last updated: 6 September 2026
Compiled by: The ANYSTAT team, from the source above

How the figures are calculated

Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
Missing years are left empty rather than estimated — no interpolation, no carrying a previous year forward.
Change is measured between the first and last year in which an entity actually reported a value, so a series that starts late is not penalised for the years before it existed.
The compound annual rate is (last ÷ first)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, using those same two reported years.
Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2015.
An entity that reported nothing in the latest year is still listed — it follows the ranked entities in the table rather than being dropped.

Rankings & Full Data

8 records · Auction Price (Million USD) · ranked by 2015

✓ 8 sourced

#	Category	2007	2011	2012	2014	2015	Change
🥇	Phantom (Peter Lik)	—	—	—	6.50	—	—
🥈	Rhein II (Andreas Gursky)	—	4.34	—	—	—	—
🥉	Untitled #96 (Cindy Sherman)	—	3.89	—	—	—	—
4	Dead Troops Talk (Jeff Wall)	—	—	3.67	—	—	—
5	99 Cent II Diptychon (Andreas Gursky)	3.35	—	—	—	—	—
6	Los Angeles (Andreas Gursky)	—	—	—	—	2.48	—
7	Diana (Richard Prince)	2.20	—	—	—	—	—
8	Spiritual America (Richard Prince)	—	—	—	1.25	—	—