Late last year, a print by photographer Andreas Gursky, "99 Cent II Diptychon (2001)," sold for $2.48 million at auction, the second-highest price ever paid for a photograph and the highest price for the work of a living photographer. The record, set last February for a 1904 work by Edward Steichen, was $2.9 million.
The Gursky that sold at Phillips de Pury & Co. in November 2006 is a 22-foot-wide chromogenic color diptych, one of an edition of six, that provides an overhead view of a colorful, crowded 99-cent store.
Six months earlier, a 1999 print from the series sold at Sotheby's in New York for $2.26 million, setting a record for a contemporary photograph at auction.
At press time, two more Gursky works, including another entry in the "99-Cent" series, were scheduled to go on the block at Sotheby's.