Summary:
The image of the Rhine II has been described as the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction.

Full article:
It is photo in which German artist Andreas Gursky wanted to capture a desolate but ‘accurate image of a modern river’. He even turned to computer trickery to remove any intrusive features – dog walkers, cyclists, a factory building – until it was bleak enough to satisfy him. And while it is hard to argue that he has achieved his aim - it is even harder to see why someone would pay a substantial sum of money to own the piece. But the digitally altered - and some might say visually uninteresting - 'Rhine II' has become the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction. Andreas Gursky's image, title Rhine II, was digitally altered to achieve the level of bleakness desired by the artist . Andreas Gursky's photo sold for $4.3m at auction . And the 1999 photograph has sold for $4.3million (£2.7m) at Christie’s in New York City. It is not known who bought the glass-mounted 80in by 140in print. The auction house described it as ‘a . dramatic and profound reflection on human existence and our relationship . to nature on the cusp of the 21st century’. The previous record for any photography sold at auction was Cindy Sherman's 1981 print ‘Untitled’, which fetched $3.8million 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.