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The $30,429,899 Photograph

So, here is a view of the most expensive image ever (that doesn’t really exist - except for now because I made it):

The $30,429,899 Photograph by Pat David

This is an amalgam of 16 (out of 18) of the most expensive photographs ever sold, all at once (based on the list at Wikipedia).

I averaged all of the images in Imagemagick, and brought them into GIMP for some level adjustments and minor processing.

I am only missing two images, that I could not find suitable resolution versions of. Those two were Andreas Gursky’s “99 Cent II Diptychon” (2001), and Dmitry Medvedev’s “Tobolsk Kremlin” (2009).

The rest of the images, at auction time, had a staggering value of $30,429,899! (I’ll sell you a print of this for a bit less…) :D Of course, I averaged the images to produce this, so perhaps it’s better to show the averaged price of $1,901,868…

The 16 images blended together are:

Andreas Gursky Rhein II (1999) $4,338,500
Cindy Sherman Untitled #96 (1981) $3,890,500
Jeff Wall Dead Troops Talk (A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986) (1992) $3,666,500
Edward Steichen The Pond-Moonlight (1904) $2,928,000
Cindy Sherman Untitled #153 (1985) $2,700,000
unknownBilly the Kid (1879–80) tintype portrait $2,300,000
Edward Weston Nude (1925) $1,609,000
Alfred Stieglitz Georgia O'Keeffe (Hands) (1919) $1,470,000
Alfred Stieglitz Georgia O'Keeffe Nude (1919) $1,360,000
Richard Prince Untitled (Cowboy) (1989) [12] $1,248,000
Richard AvedonDovima with elephants (1955) $1,151,976
Edward Weston Nautilus (1927) $1,082,500
Jeff Wall Untangling (1994) $1 Million AUD
Eugène Atget Joueur d'Orgue (1898–1899) $686,500
Robert MapplethorpeAndy Warhol (1987) $643,200
Ansel Adams Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1948) $609,600

After staring at it for a bit, I actually started to notice a Conehead looking Andy Warhol in the middle. In fact, now I can’t stop seeing it.


Filed under: average, GIMP, ImageMagick, amalgamation

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