14 DAY TRIAL // Space enthusiasts might be familiar with this bit of information. In order to document the Apollo 15 mission on the moon in 1971, astronauts used a Hasselblad 500 camera after making contact with the lunar surface.
The stunning pictures they took using the camera are still available to view online. The same can’t be said about the particular type of camera that was used to achieve the end. The mission used a total of 14 cameras on the moon, but most of them were left behind, due to weight concerns. But one of them actually made it back to Earth.
And this very camera was up for auction last week, with a starting price of €80,000 / $110,192, but finally managed to sell for a whopping €550,00 / €757,570 (plus the premium for auctioneers’ expenses set for €660,000 / $909,084). The camera was acquired by Terukazu Fujisawa, founder of Japan’s Yodobashi Camera retail chains.
The Hasselblad used to belong to an Italian collector and has been certified as being “100-percent proof.” The owner of the Austrian auction house where the bidding has taken place claimed that the camera is a real thing and really was on the moon. Talk about a piece of real-life history!