"@MlNDBLOWINGS: The famous photo of Albert #Einstein sticking out his tongue on his 72nd birthday. 1951 pic.twitter.com/1dh0tlUrig"
— Lina Jululian (@LinaJululian) September 28, 2013
The image of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out adorns the racks at Spencer’s gift stores across America. But now, one lucky patron of the arts finally owns one of the first prints of the physicist having a grand ol’ time—at an auction on July 27th, the image sold for $125,000. The buyer’s identity has not been revealed.
According to the Nate D. Sanders auction house in Los Angeles, which made the sale, the iconic image was snapped after Einstein’s 72nd birthday party at The Princeton Club in 1951. Einstein—probably tipsy or something—stuck his tongue out at a group of photographers trying to take his picture. While the photographer who took the shot—Arthur Sasse—was initially nervous about publishing the somewhat unflattering photo of the famed physicist, Einstein was simply tickled. According to Live Science, he ordered several copies of the photo and signed the original “A. Einstein .51.”
A rare Albert Einstein 72nd Birthday picture of playful sticking his tongue out has been sold for a whopping USD 125,000 at an auction. pic.twitter.com/qjmyZzDNR8
— PeakLife (@PeakLifeIndia) August 1, 2017
The action house that sold the photo the other day was expecting $100,000 for the piece. It’s unclear how the auctioneers came into possession of the photo, but Gizmodo has reached out for comment and will update this post if and when we hear back.
If you don’t have $125k to shill out but still love this iconic image, no worries. You can buy a similar version at literally any mall.
