A 1999 photograph of the Rhine river by German artist Andreas Gursky has sold for $4.3 million in New York City, setting a record for any photograph sold at auction.

Titled Rhein II, the chromogenic colour print face-mounted to acrylic glass, had a pre-sale estimate of between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.

It sold at Christie’s but the identity of the buyer was not disclosed.

The previous record for any photograph sold at auction was Cindy Sherman’s Untitled, which fetched $3.8 million at Christie’s in May.

Gursky’s panoramic image of the Rhine is one of an edition of six photographs. Four are in major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.