By P Chong                                                                                       16 November 2011

When I first saw the painting of Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum in Parisin 1959, it didn’t strike or fascinate me nor any of my friends. Yet this is undoubtedly one of the most famous paintings of Leonardo de Vinci. What then priced thevalue of art? Is it because of the known artist?

Beauty I guess is in the eyes of the beholder. 

Now, it’s reported in The West Australian AP on November 13, 2011

a prized photograph auctioned off for $4.3m. Have a look & see

if this photo is really worth that much?

This is what was reported by The West Australian:

“A 1999 photograph of the Rhine River by German artist Andreas Gursky has sold for $4.3 million in New York City, setting a record for any photograph sold at auction.

Titled “Rhein II”, the chromogenic colour print, which is face-mounted to acrylic glass, had a pre-sale estimate of between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.

It sold on Tuesday at Christie’s, but the buyer was not disclosed.

The previous record for any photograph sold at auction was Cindy Sherman‘s “Untitled”, which fetched $3.8 million at Christie’s in May.

Gursky’s panoramic image of the Rhine is one of an edition of six photographs.

Four are in major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London.”