andreas gursky photo

via Christie's

Last night, art history was made when an anonymous buyer paid a record-breaking $4.34 million for Andreas Gursky's photograph of the Rhine River, called Rhein II.

The snapshot, which sold at Christie's impressionist and modern art auction in New York, became the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction.

It beat out Cindy Sherman's Untitled #96, which sold for a whopping $3.89 million at a Christie's sale this May.

Gursky's print, made in 1999, was expected to sell for between $2.5 million and $3.5 million. It depicts a stunning panorama of Germany's most famous river. The sale price includes the buyer's premium.