A new photo has surfaced of the famed western outlaw Billy the Kid, purchased for about $2 in a junk shop in California, that could easily be worth upward of $5 million. The lucky man behind the photo purchase is Randy Guijarro who picked it up in a store around Fresno, California in 2010. Awaiting authentication for just over a year it has finally been claimed to be the kid himself.
The 4x4 tintype style portrait was snapped near a small cabin with his gang playing croquet in the background. Said to have been taken in the summer of 1878 by Kagin's Inc, the people behind finalizing its authenticity, which took over a year.
When we first saw the photograph, we were understandably skeptical – an original Billy the Kid photo is the Holy Grail of Western Americana -David McCarthy Senior Numismatist at Kagin's Inc.
What are the chances? How many times have you flipped through a box of old photos to discover something beyond rare? Like John Maloof when finding the large boxes of negatives by famed street photographer Vivian Maier, you just never know what could be laying around waiting to be discovered.
[via WZZM]
Very cool but which one is Billy the Kid? I guess the one on the left slightly resembles the more famous image but is that correct?
I don't like it: blacks too crushed and the Faux-Grunge filter has to go! /s
Crime does pay! Hahahaa
In Australia this would be the equivalent of finding some previously unseen photos of Ned Kelly.
Think they could have done some restoration on the shot? Just thinking out loud here. :)
I would certainly ask for a reshoot. too much of fake grunge filter application and whats with the actual hole in the picture.