Collectible photography on the rise: From Einstein Icons to million-dollar auctions

The top thirty also includes an anonymous tintype – a “print” in metal, or the original form of photography from the pioneering decades of this art, dominant in the second half of the 19th century – with the image of Billy the Kid, the famous gunfighter from the turbulent era of the Wild West. At an auction in 2011, it was sold for 2.3 million dollars. Billy the Kid was a character who liked to pose, evidence of which can be easily found today, for example, on eBay: there are at least a dozen portraits of the gunfighter available for sale, priced by sellers at amounts from several hundred thousand to even 11 million dollars. However, it is not entirely clear whether they are real.

The popular platform brings a slightly different perspective on collectible photography. There are fewer photos from visual artists, and more photos that we could consider “journalistic” or “documentary”. Enthusiasts can tackle, for example, a portrait of Elon Musk from the pioneering era of SpaceX, along with a transfer of copyright ($3.5 million), a huge book of photos from the film “Logan”, which was supposed to be a closing story of the superhero Wolverine ($1.5 million), photos of military units from the Civil War, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln “with a child”, a handful of daguerreotypes and ferrotypes dating back to the mid-19th century (each of these items was valued at around $1 million).

The Polish market, as you might imagine, fares rather modestly compared to these global records. Two photography auctions organized by Desa Unicum at the end of April brought in PLN 435,000 and PLN 196,000 (the auctions were divided into categories: "classic and avant-garde art" and "celebrities, stars, personalities").

The first one primarily includes works by artists – here the records belong to Witkacy and a set of two photographs: Niesząły bandyta and Groźny bandyta (PLN 100,000), as well as Piotr Uklański: Bezpozycja (Brooklun Bridge Tail Lights) for PLN 55,000, and taking into account all the photographs sold – to Natalia Lach-Lachowicz (from PLN 12 to 19,000 each). The auction included works by Zdzisław Beksiński (PLN 7,500), Ewa Partum (PLN 22,000), the Łódź Kaliska collective (PLN 6,500). In this part of the auction, the works of reporters and documentarians, such as Chris Niedenthal or Zenon Żyburtowicz, sold for sums ranging from PLN 1 to 3,000, can be considered a separate segment.

The second, "celebrity" part of the auction featured celebrity photos. A portrait of Marilyn Monroe (one of several in this auction) by Milton H. Greene went for 22,000 złoty, a 1992 nude of Madonna photographed by Steven Meisel went for 20,000 złoty, and one of Helmut Newton's works went for 7,000 złoty.