Photo of potato sells for $1.5 million

Photographer Kevin Abosch has sold his shot of a potato, pulled from the soil of Ireland and set against a black background, for €1 million (more than $1.52M CAD.)

Abosch took the shots in his Dublin home in 2010 and only made three prints, according to the Irish Times.

One of the prints was hanging in his home when it was spotted by an unnamed European businessman.

“We had two glasses of wine and he said, ‘I really like that’,” Abosch told the London-based Sunday Times. “Two more glasses of wine and he said, 'I really want that.’ We set the price two weeks later.”

Abosch told the Irish Times the price was set at a non-negotiable €1 million, as it’s more than just an Instagram food photo.

“I see commonalities between humans and potatoes that speak to our relationship as individuals within a collective species,“ Abosch said. "Generally, the life of a harvested potato is violent and taken for granted. I use the potato as a proxy for the ontological study of the human experience.”

Abosch has kept one of the three prints for his own collection, and donated the third print to a Serbian museum.

Abosch, known for taking headshots of celebrities like Johnny Depp, Bob Geldoff, Steven Spielberg, and even Malala Yousafzai, said he understands many people might consider the price for 'Potato #345’ to be a little "absurd.”

He also said he’s taken so many photos of potatoes over the years he can’t even tell the buyer what kind this one was.