Courtesy of Kagins.com
A lucky collector walked into Fresno, California junk shop and paid $2 for an old photograph that turns out to be worth millions of dollars – and according to experts, the photo features the infamous Wild West outlaw known as Billy the Kid. According to a report on NBC News, Randy Guijarro, an avid historian, bought the photo, a ferrotype, in 2010, not knowing at the time that the cardigan-wearing cowboy in the photo was actually Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid, posing with fellow members of his gang, The Regulators, during a friendly game of croquet.
Courtesy of Kagins.com
The 4-by-5-inch print was ultimately authenticated and appraised for $5 million by Kagin’s Inc., a firm specializing in Western Americana. According to the Kagin’s website, the tintype was taken in the summer of 1879, a month after the Lincoln County War ended.
Kagins states:
“When we first saw the photograph, we were understandably skeptical – an original Billy the Kid photo is the Holy Grail of Western Americana,” remarked Kagin’s senior numismatist, David McCarthy. “We had to be certain that we could answer and verify where, when, how and why this photograph was taken. Simple resemblance is not enough in a case like this – a team of experts had to be assembled to address each and every detail in the photo to insure that nothing was out of place. After more than a year of methodical study including my own inspection of the site, there is now overwhelming evidence of the image’s authenticity.”
The print is so valuable partially because it is the only one of two known prints of the 19th century outlaw. The other photograph is a 2-by-3 inch tintype portrait of McCarty standing outside a New Mexico saloon. That print managed to fetch $2.3 million at auction.
The photograph will be featured in a two-hour documentary narrated by Kevin Costner and airing Sunday, October 18th at 9/8 CST on National Geographic.
