Le Violon d'Ingres is the most expensive photograph in history: sold at Christie's for $12 million

Another record-breaking work sold at auction by Christie’s: while in the Paris office Michelangelo Buonarroti’s drawing of a nude man with two figures behind him was sold for more than 23 million euros, reaching the third-highest price for a drawing by an Old Master and becoming the most expensive work ever sold by the artist, in the New York office it was sold for 12. 412,500 dollars the iconic masterpiece Le Violon d’Ingres by surrealist artist Man Ray. It is to date the most expensive photograph ever.

It was predicted back in February, when it was announced that the celebrated masterpiece would go to auction in May 2022 at Christie’s with an estimate ranging from $5 million to $7 million. Top lot of The Surrealist World of Rosalind Gersten Jacobs and Melvin Jacobs auction, featuring pieces from the collection of Rosalind Gersten Jacobs and Melvin Jacobs, Le Violon d’Ingres is one of Man Ray ’s (Philadelphia, 1890 - Paris, 1976) most famous shots. Made in 1924, it depicts Man Ray’s model, muse and lover, Kiki de Montparnasse, naked from behind, with the shape of her body resembling that of a violin, to which the artist added two “F”-shaped ink inserts to resemble the two side slits in the violin case. The title of the work is a tribute to Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, since the great neoclassical painter’s favorite pastime was precisely the violin.

Image: Man Ray, Le Violon d’Ingres (1924)

Le Violon d'Ingres is the most expensive photograph in history: sold at Christie's for $12 million

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