A private collector has purchased a print of Peter Lik鈥檚 鈥淧hantom鈥 for a whopping $6.5 million in what 聽is the most lucrative photograph sale in history. The company says the purchase has earned the Australian nature photographer four of the top 20 slots for the most expensive photographs ever sold.
鈥淧hantom鈥 is the black-and-white rendition of Lik鈥檚 original, award-winning color photo聽聽Lik took the picture in 2010 in Antelope Canyon, Arizona.
The collector, who hasn鈥檛 been named, also bought Lik鈥檚 鈥淚llusion鈥 for $2.4 million and 鈥淓ternal Moods鈥澛(the black-and-white version of ) for $1.1 million, bringing the total price tag for the three photos to an even $10 million.
鈥淐ertain textures and contours found in nature lend themselves beautifully to black-and-white photography,鈥澛. “The intensity of contrasting light and dark spaces was surprising, but made for some of the most powerful images I鈥檝e ever created.鈥