Most expensive photograph sold at auction

A photograph of the Rhine under grey skies taken by the German artist Andreas Gursky (b. 1955) fetched US$4,338,500 (£2.7 million), including buyer's premium, at a Christie's auction held in New York, USA, on 8 November 2011. The glass-mounted 185.4 x 363.5 cm (73 x 143 in) panoramic colour print, created in 1999, is one of an edition of six works. The buyer is unknown. It beat the previous record of $3.9 m (£2.5 m) achieved by an untitled 1981 colour print by Cindy Sherman, who is the subject of all her own works.