from The Sydney Morning Herald
Kevin Abosch sells photograph of potato for $1.5 million
by Megan Levy
The Kevin Abosch photo Potato #345 which has sold for $1.5 million. Photo: Kevin Abosch
The chips certainly aren’t down for photographer Kevin Abosch.
He recently sold this photograph of a potato for £750,000 ($1.5 million). Really.
It should be noted that it’s an organic spud, from the spiritual home of the potato, Ireland, so you’d expect it to be a bit pricier per kilogram than the dirt-cheap variety.
But even Abosch, better known for taking portraits of celebrities including Johnny Depp, Bob Geldoff and Steven Spielberg, acknowledges that some might find the price tag for the photograph, entitled Potato #345, a little “absurd”.
Abosch’s explanation of how the sale came about suggests wine might have had something to do with the transaction.
Abosch, who is based in France and Ireland, was having dinner with an unnamed European businessman at his home when his guest saw the photograph hanging on the wall, The Sunday Times in London reported.
Abosch had photographed the potato in 2010, after it was delivered to his home in a batch of organic vegetables.
“We had two glasses of wine and he [the businessman] said, ‘I really like that.’ Two more glasses of wine and he said: ‘I really want that,’ ” Abosch said
“We set the price two weeks later. It is the most I have been paid for a piece of work that has been bought [rather than commissioned].”