Archive note: This page began as a list of high-priced photographs in 2014, not a current ranking of the most expensive photographs ever sold. It mixed a company-announced private sale with public auction results, which are different kinds of evidence. The six works below are retained as part of the original archive.

In December 2014, LIK USA announced a $6.5 million private sale of Peter Lik’s Phantom. That figure was reported by the seller, not a public auction result. By contrast, Christie’s documented a $12,412,500 auction result for Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres in May 2022. This page has not been rebuilt as a present-day top-five list; check an auction house’s current records when making a current comparison.

Peter Lik’s black-and-white photograph Phantom showing a shaft of light in a canyonSave

Andreas Gursky’s photograph Rhein II showing parallel bands of sky, river and grassSave

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #96, a staged portrait of a woman in orangeSave

Jeff Wall’s Dead Troops Talk, a staged scene with soldiers on rocky groundSave

Andreas Gursky’s 99 Cent II Diptychon, a view across colorful store shelvesSave

Edward Steichen’s The Pond-Moonlight, a dark wooded scene reflected in waterSave

Archive sequence: Phantom (Lik), Rhein II (Gursky), Untitled #96 (Sherman), Dead Troops Talk (Wall), 99 Cent II Diptychon (Gursky), and The Pond-Moonlight (Steichen). These images document the earlier list; the order is not a current price ranking.