I have recently read about a print of Ansel Adams reaching $600,000 at auction in 1948 (equivalent of around $6 million US dollars today). This got me thinking that there must be other high value photographs out there, valued by either auction or insurance appraisal.
I know that the size of the print may be an impressive feature and that the authenticity is a big impact factor. Obviously artistic subjectivity plays a role in art, but insurers determine the value of these pieces from a purely financial point of view. What do they do to calculate this?
I want to get to the bottom of how to score authenticity and some examples of when such prints, both historical (taking into account inflation) and modern, have sold for or been insured for astronomical values.