Richard Prince's $90,000 Instagram appropriation compared to original $90 photo by Selena Mooney

On July 9, 2015, Selena "Missy Suicide" Mooney posted an image on Instagram that juxtaposed her original photograph with Richard Prince's appropriated version. Prince had exhibited the work as part of his "New Portraits" series, where he screenshotted Instagram posts, added his own comments, and printed them as large-scale inkjet prints. Mooney's original photo was priced at $90, while Prince's version sold for $90,000 through Gagosian Gallery. The Instagram post highlighted the dramatic price disparity and raised questions about authorship, value, and appropriation in the digital age. Prince's practice of rephotographing existing images without permission has been controversial since the 1970s. The "New Portraits" series specifically targeted images shared on social media platforms. Gagosian Gallery exhibited these works in New York in 2014. The incident sparked discussions about fair use, copyright, and the economics of contemporary art.