Sotheby’s held its very first hip-hop memorabilia auction on Tuesday, September 15th, where they auctioned off rare items from rappers, including Slick Rick's eye patch and 2Pac's high school love letters. Among the items was the crown that Biggie wore in his final photoshoot before he was fatally shot in 1997.
The plastic crown was bought for $6 by Brooklyn-based photographer Barron Claiborne for a "King of New York" spread in Rap Pages magazine. Claiborne provided the crown to Sotheby's, who auctioned it off for a whopping $594,750 alongside a pair of prints from the session, plus a photo contact sheet.
Claiborne commented on the shoot, stating, "I’m not sure that I even got paid for it. I was mostly shooting celebrities and reportage. I did this because I liked taking pictures of Biggie. The time before, I photographed him in a white suit — instead of the tracksuit that most rappers were wearing back in 1997."
He then revealed that he almost didn't get the shot of Biggie in the crown, revealing that "Diddy said it would make Biggie look like Burger King." Claiborne added, "But Biggie didn’t listen. He wore it anyway. And nobody’s ever told me that they look at the photo and think the crown is plastic. His power cancels out the fact that it is a novelty crown."
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