WHAT IS believed to be the only surviving, authenticated portrait of Billy the Kid fetched more than $2.3 million dollars (€1.62 million) at auction in Denver, Colorado.
The tintype went to private collector William Koch at the Old West Show Auction, where auction spokeswoman Melissa McCracken said the image of the 1800s outlaw was the most expensive piece sold.
The tintype is believed to have been taken in 1879 or 1880 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. It shows the outlaw dressed in a rumpled hat and layers of clothes, including a bulky sweater. He is standing with one hand resting on a Winchester carbine on his right side and a Colt revolver holstered on his left.
Tintypes were an early form of photography that used metal plates. They are reverse images, and the Billy the Kid tintype led to the mistaken belief that he was left-handed.
The myth inspired the 1958 movie The Left Handed Gun, starring Paul Newman as Billy.
Billy the Kid gave the image to a friend, Dan Dedrick, and the tintype has been owned by his descendants, the Upham family, ever since. It was only ever publicly displayed during the 1980s at a museum in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
Ms McCracken said the tintype was recognisable around the world as a classic image of the Old West. “There’s only one photo of Billy the Kid and I think that’s why it captivates people’s imagination,” she said.
Billy the Kid’s real name was William Henry McCarty. He is believed by some historians to have been born in New York’s Allen Street, a poor Irish immigrant area. He also used the names William Bonney and Henry Antrim. – (AP)