A series of original NASA photographs from the Apollo missions sold for a total of 1.16 million Danish crowns ($171,831) in an auction in Copenhagen on Wednesday.
The 74 privately-owned photographs from the Apollo 8-17 missions included the famous one of Buzz Aldrin’s moon walk during the first manned lunar landing in July 1969, which sold for 52,000 crowns ($7,703).
The photograph of Buzz Aldrin in full astronaut suit and Neil Armstrong, who took the photograph and can be glimpsed in the reflection on Aldrin’s visor, featured on the cover of National Geographic and Life magazines in 1969.
The first color photograph of the first earthrise ever witnessed by human beings taken during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 sold at the highest price of 88,400 crowns ($13,095).
The original NASA vintage photographs were issued in limited numbers for scientific study and publication in international magazines.
“What makes this collection unique is the size of the collection and the fact that you don’t see this on the global art market every day,” Bruun Rasmussen’s director of sales and valuation, Kasper Nielsen, told Reuters in an interview ahead of the auction.
The auction house said the seller was a foreigner with relations to Denmark, but did not reveal the identity of either the seller or the buyers.
The photographs were valued at between 1.3 million ($192,570) and 1.82 million crowns ($269,598).
Top image: Apollo 11 U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon, next to the Lunar Module “Eagle” (R), July 20, 1969.
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