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The Times of India
The Times of India
World
TOI World Desk

170-year-old portrait sold for $882 in 2025 fetches $230,400 after man's identity is discovered

Sotheby Christie New York New York State

A photograph that sold for just $882 at a New York auction last year has fetched $230,400 a year later after experts discovered the identity of the man pictured in it. The 170-year-old image, which had been listed as a portrait of an unknown man wearing spectacles, was identified as a photograph of George Boyer Vashon, the first licensed African American lawyer in New York State. The discovery also revealed that the photograph had been taken in 1856 by Philip Haas, a 19th-century photographer.

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