Art...and like fame...and stuff.

from The Real Cindy Sherman in Harpars Bazaar...

...Last spring, Sherman's Untitled #96 (above) sold for $3.9 million, then the highest price ever paid at auction for a photograph. She says she was gratified that a photograph of hers set an auction record but also not surprised. "I felt, well, it's about time," she says. "Not that I feel it's worth that much, but so much other photography by men has been hovering in that range. I have to say I'm competitive: 'Hey, what about me? I'm in that same realm of fame as those guys.'"

Rhein II by Andreas Gursky, now the most expensive photograph ever sold at $4.3m

from Why is Art so Damned Expensive? in Newsweek/TheDaily Beast...

...“If I can’t sell something, I just double the price.” That’s what Ernst Beyeler, the great Swiss dealer who helped found Art Basel, reportedly said. Some people actually prefer to pay more than makes sense. Zelizer explains that, in all walks of life, we treat the biggest sums differently, with special respect or even awe, than more everyday money. “I think very often the price paid for a work is the trophy itself,” says Arnold Glimcher an art dealer.