Of All The Things He Could Buy For Over USD1 Million, A Man Bought This Photo Of A Potato
It's titled Potato #345.
By Sadho Ram — 28 Jan 2016, 01:39 PM
Look at this. It's a photo of an Irish potato against a black background taken by Kevin Abosch, who is apparently a world-famous visual artist and renowned celebrity photographer. The photo, titled "Potato #345", has been sold for USD1.08 million.
Business Insider reports that Abosch’s “iconic black backdrop” portraits have become a sort of status symbol among the elites of business and entertainment — the rich and famous pay over $150,000 for a photo shoot with Abosch, and up to $500,000 if commercial usage is included.
In addition to shooting pricey portraits, Abosch is also a fine art photographer, and that’s how the potato photo came about.
“Kevin likes potatoes because they, like people are all different yet immediately identifiable as being essentially of the same species,” his studio tells PetaPixel. “He has photographed many potatoes. This one is one of his favorites.”
According to the photographer, who revealed that the sale, brokered over a few glasses of wine, is the biggest of his career.
However, if the sale price is verified, it will make "Potato #345" the 15th most expensive photo ever sold, reports CNN.
The current record holder for the most expensive photograph ever sold is "Rhein II" by Andreas Gursky, which fetched US$4.3 million at a Christie's auction in 2011.
In 2014, photographer Peter Lik claimed that his "Phantom" had surpassed that record, "officially making art history" by selling for US$6.5 million.
That record, however, was not verified, and the alleged buyer was never named.
The recently sold photograph is one of three in existence
Abosch keeps one in his own private collection and donated another to a Serbian art museum. The third was bought by an unidentified European businessman.
Abosch recounted the story to the Sunday Times: “We had two glasses of wine and he said, ‘I really like that.’ Two more glasses of wine and he said, ‘I really want that.'” The two agreed upon a price a couple of weeks later, and it ended up being his most expensive non-commissioned work.
“Selling your own art is bittersweet,” Abosch said in a statement to Fortune. “You do it for practical reasons and hope that the work brings comfort and joy to its new owners.”
fortune.com
