Updated  5/16/22: Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres has just sold for $12.4 million, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction. In the original reporting below, we noted that the image was listed by Christie’s Auction House with an asking price of at least $5 million. According to Art News, a drawn-out bidding period lasted nearly 10 minutes and saw the value of the photo skyrocket to $12.4 million. 

A surrealist image of a woman’s bare back painted with the f-shaped holes of a violin could bring the highest price yet for a single auctioned photograph. The image, Le Violon d’Ingres by Man Ray, the 20th-century surrealist photographer known for his cameraless photography technique that led to the “rayograph”, is set to be auctioned at Christie’s this May. The photograph has a record-breaking reserve price of $5 million. If the image sells for its estimated $5 to $7 million, it would become the most expensive photographic print.

The image, taken in 1924, captures Kiki de Montparnasse, also known as Alice Prin, from behind. The artist and frequent Man Ray muse is nude, with a blanket around her hips, a turban on her head and one earring visible from her turned head. The image’s most striking details, however, are the two f-shapes on her back, which mimic the holes on a violin.

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Man Ray, who began as a painter, painted those shapes on the image after it was taken, then took another image of the painted photograph. Those shapes give the image its surreal look, comparing the woman’s curves to the stringed instrument. The painted details also give the image its name, Le Violono de’Ingres, which is French for “Ingres’s Violin.”

The image is considered an original photographic copy, which means it was printed soon after the negative was developed. That original status, as well as the recognizable image, contributes to the high estimate of $5 to $7 million. Artsy describes Man Ray’s images of Montparnasse as “icon’s of 20th-century art.”

Man Ray, born in 1890 as Emmanuel Radnitzky, started his artistic career as a Dadaist painter. He then began experimenting with arranging items and people over photosensitive paper, works he dubbed “rayographs.” He began taking photographs shortly after and became known for his surrealist fine art nudes. He died in 1976.

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The photograph is being auctioned along with others from the estate of Rosalind Gersten Jacobs and Melvin Jacobs. The couple, both fashion retail executives and art collectors, purchased the photograph directly from Man Ray in 1962, according to the auction house. The image is being sold along with a number of other pieces from the couple’s collection of surrealist art.

Le Violon d’Ingres will be on tour with others from the collection in London, Paris and Hong Kong before arriving in New York. The photograph is expected to be part of a live, in-person auction at Christie’s in New York. The image will also be available for viewing in New York prior to the auction.

The record for the highest verified auction price for a single photograph is $4.3 million for the landscape image Rhein II by Andreas Gursky. The most a Man Ray image has sold for in the past was $3 million for the work Noire et Blanche, which also depicts Kiki de Montparnasse.