Vegas-based photographer sets record with $6.5 million sale

Talk about a jackpot.

Australian-born, Las Vegas-based photographer Peter Lik just hit one with the sale of the most expensive photograph in history.

Lik’s company, Lik USA, announced that a private collector paid $6.5 million for the photographer’s “Phantom.”

The purchase also included Lik’s “Illusion” (which sold for $2.4 million) and “Eternal Moods” ($1.1 million).

With the $10 million overall sale, Lik now holds four of the top 20 spots for most expensive photographs ever sold, according to a news release. (He was already in the top 20 thanks to a previous $1 million sale for his photograph “One.”)

Both “Phantom” and “Eternal Moods” are black-and-white representations of previous color photographs: “Ghost” and “Eternal Beauty,” respectively.

“Certain textures and contours found in nature lend themselves beautifully to black-and-white photography,” Lik says in the news release announcing the sale. “The intensity of contrasting light and dark spaces was surprising, but made for some of the most powerful images I’ve ever created.”

Lik shoots most of his photos in color, capturing vibrant natural landscapes. (The NBC series “From the Edge With Peter Lik” followed him in action.)

And while collectors spend millions on his award-winning works, you can view them at Lik’s local galleries at Caesars Palace, Mandalay Bay and The Venetian — and at McCarran Airport’s Terminal 3, where three large photographs of Utah’s Arches National Park, Arizona’s Grand Canyon and Nevada’s Red Rock Canyon are on display.

“The purpose of all my photos is to capture the power of nature and convey it in a way that inspires someone to feel passionate and connected to the image,” Lik states in the news release.