Cheeky photo of Charles snapped up for $22,000
The mystery of who took a 1981 photo of Prince Charles and a man in an ‘‘I’m with Stupid’’ T-shirt has been solved.
The photo sold for more than $22,000 at an Auckland auction on Thursday.
Former Auckland Star photographer Rex Rattenbury said the shot taken in Tokoroa was his, confirming a nagging doubt in the mind of fellow snapper Trevor Coppock, who had believed he had taken it.
Rattenbury told Stuff from Western Australia that he and Coppock were both there, but his shot was square on, while Coppock’s was from an angle.
Coppock had told Stuff on the day of the auction that he thought it was his, but that the only copies he still had were from a different angle, leaving open a ‘‘nagging doubt’’.
The original file print set a photo record at Webb’s on Thursday, and went to a bidder for $22,325 in an auction of 389 royal tour prints sold by a Los Angeles dealer who bought the former Fairfax New Zealand archive.
Rattenbury cleared up the confusion, explaining that he and Coppock had left the main pack of Fleet Street photographers during a visit to the Kinleith pulp and paper mill.
‘‘I couldn’t see from the back of the English pack and went around to the far side of the conveyor belt,’’ Rattenbury told Stuff. Coppock had joined him there.
Rattenbury’s recollection is supported by a former colleague whom Stuff has spoken to.
The mystery of the origins of the print was not helped by notes originally attached to it in 1981 having been lost during an ill-fated deal in which the archive was sent to the United States to be digitised.
Australian-owned Fairfax made an agreement in 2013 to have millions of prints from its archives on both sides of the Tasman shipped to the US in a digitisation deal with Rogers Photo Archive. Rogers subsequently went bust.
The digital copies, in varying quality, were returned but the original prints that Rogers then owned became the property of a bank, which sold them to Los Angeles art dealer Daniel Miller.
Miller is repatriating the prints to Australia and New Zealand, with the auctions helping to fund the sorting and cleaning of a collection by his staff in Los Angeles.
‘‘It was in tremendous disarray. I had to buy it sight unseen and the really big job is trying to organise it,’’ Miller told Stuff.
Most of the collection is Australian, and a big project has begun already, returning prints to 50 to 60 local libraries and institutions.
The print, entitled I’m with Stupid, was the standout sale.
Nearly $2600 was paid for an aerial photo of the royal yacht Britannia in Auckland’s harbour in 1977, also taken by Rattenbury who said he had to put a tie on and go on board to present a copy to the Queen.
A photo of the Queen addressing Parliament with then-prime minister David Lange attracted a $3000 bid.