Billy the Kid portrait sells for $2.3 million

The only authentic portrait of Billy the Kid was expected to fetch $300,000 to $400,000 at auction. But eventually it was sold for $2.3 million. A private collector purchased the portrait on an annual Old-West auction show in Denver, Colorado.

The tintype – an early form of photo using metal plates – portraying Billy the Kid (aka William Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William H. Bonney) is believed to have been taken in 1879 or 1880 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. It depicts the gunfighter in rumpled clothes and a hat, gazing at the camera and holding a Winchester rifle.

In the 130 years since his death, Billy the Kid has been depicted, with varying degrees of accuracy, in scores of popular culture movies and books. Because of the reversal printing technique, it was always mistakenly believed that this notorious killer was left-handed. The life and death of Billy the Kid has been mystified but the portrait was probably taken a year or two before Billy the Kid was killed by Sheriff Patrick Floyd Garrett.