U2 prints fail to meet reserve price

Rare early photographs of U2 were withdrawn from sale tonight in Dublin tonight after the auctioneer still hadn’t found what he was looking for…

When a single signed photograph of the band by world-renowned photographer Anton Corbijn sold for €12,000 late last year, it was expected that a collection of four more of his prints would fetch thousands.

However, a spokeswoman for the auction at the James Adams Salesrooms on Dublin’s Stephen’s Green said the lot had failed to reach the reserve price tonight.

“It’s a very specialised market and an unpredictable market. But there may be more offers tomorrow,” she said.

The previously unseen black and white pictures feature the four members of U2 - Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton – and the child, Peter Rowen, who featured on the band’s Boy and War albums in the early 1980s.

The prints are accompanied by a hand written note to Bono from the photographer who has been credited with helping form the band’s early image. They are owned by Peter Rowen, aka Radar, the young man who featured on U2’s most iconic early album covers.