Mystery man buys ONE potato for N350 million
And it wasn’t even the potato itself that was bought for that outrageous amount.
It was it’s picture!
The Irish potato’s portrait was tagged “Potato #345” by it’s maker, 46-year-old Irish visual artist and celebrity photographer Kevin Abosch.
Abosch reportedly sold the portrait for $1.08 million (about N350 million) last year to an unnamed European businessman who saw it while dining at Abosch’s Paris home.
Abosch is no stranger to charging at the high end for his portraits. He sometimes charges as high as $500,000 for portraits of famous figures.
But he never expected he’ll make so much from that of an ordinary Irish potato. He said it’s the single biggest deal of his career.
And here’s why he shot the photogenic potato.
I see commonalities between humans and potatoes that speak to our relationship as individuals within a collective species. Generally, the life of a harvested potato is violent and taken for granted. I use the potato as a proxy for the ontological study of the human experience.
According to CNN:
If the sale price is verified, it will make “Potato #345” the 15th most expensive photo ever sold.
The current record holder for the most expensive photograph ever sold is “Rhein II” by Andreas Gursky, which fetched US$4.3 million at a Christie’s auction in 2011.
In 2014, photographer Peter Lik claimed that his “Phantom” had surpassed that record, “officially making art history” by selling for US$6.5 million.
That record, however, was not verified, and the alleged buyer was never named.
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