Photographer Kevin Abosch recently sold this photograph of a potato for $1.5 million.
He took the photo in Ireland, the supposed spiritual birthplace of Potato.
Kevin Abosch is known for taking portraits of celebrities including Johnny Depp, Bob Geldoff and Steven Spielberg.
He acknowledged that some might find the price tag for the photograph, entitled Potato #345, a little “absurd”.
His 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, he had photographed the potato in 2010, after it was delivered to his home in a batch of organic vegetables.
He said “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.
“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].”
Abosch’s trademark portraits on black backgrounds have become collectors’ items among the wealthy, with each commission regularly earning him upwards of millions of dollars.
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