By Neal Wallace

An image of the Rhine by a German artist has broken the record for a photograph at auction, selling for $4.3 million (£2.7 million) at Christie's in New York.

Rhein II, one of an edition of six works, was created in 1999 by Andreas Gursky. Two of the other prints in the series hang at New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Modern. Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne and Glenstone art museum in the US also have copies of the picture.

According to the auctioneer, the viewer in not supposed to view a specific place, but rather an "almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water", reports the BBC.

Gursky himself has spoken of the work, saying that he "carried this idea for a picture around with me for a year-and-a-half," and ended up digitising the image, removing the parts he didn't like.

The previous record for a photograph sold at auction was for Cindy Sherman's Untitled #96, which sold for $3.9 million.