As a followup to my earlier blog about the auction of the Shipton-Ward Yeti footprint photographs, the final bids are in.

Boing Boing’s David Pescovitz blogs today of the outcome of auction.

“This 1951 photograph of a purported Yeti footprint was auctioned off at Christie’s London for £3,500. Eric Earle Shipton took the photograph in the Himalayas,” writes Pescovitz.

That amount equals US $7082.25.

It is unknown who purchased the set of Yeti photos (as there were four, not just the one famous photograph), at this time. It is worth noting, in typical British wording, they had been “THE PROPERTY OF A LADY,” which had been “a gift from Tom Bourdillon to Michael John Davies in the 1950s, and thence by descent to the present owner.”

Intriguingly, as Christie’s listed: “Please note this lot is sold without copyright.”

In other words, these were merely old photographic prints that probably are rather easily obtainable as copies.

Shipton, Michael Ward, and Sen Tensing found these tracks during the exploratory 1951 expedition in which the team worked out the now famous route over the Khumbu Glacier to assault Mount Everest.

Eric Shipton (August 1, 1907 – March 28, 1977).