Most Expensive Piece of Art Sold by a Living Artist
Over the years, a select few painting around the earth, from venerable Old Masters to groundbreaking modernistic works, make headlines past garnering for astronomical prices in private sales or attracting astronomical bids at auction. Below, we look at 35 of the almost expensive paintings ever sold starting with a nautical chart of the top 10.
| Painting | Artist | Price Realized | |
|---|---|---|---|
| one. | Salvator Mundi | Leonardo da Vinci | $450.3 million |
| 2. | Interchange | Willem de Kooning | $300 million |
| 3. | The Bill of fare Players | Paul Cézanne | $250 million |
| 4. | Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Ally?) | Paul Gauguin | $210 million |
| five. | Number 17A | Jackson Pollock | $200 million |
| half dozen. | Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit | Rembrandt van Rijn | $195 1000000 |
| 7. | No. 6 (Violet, Greenish and Red) | Mark Rothko | $186 million |
| 8. | Les femmes d'Alger (Version "O") | Pablo Picasso | $179.iv million |
| 9. | Nu couché (Reclining Nude) | Amedeo Modigliani | $170.iv 1000000 |
| 10. | Three Studies of Lucian Freud | Francis Salary | $142.four million |
1. Salvator Mundi, 1490–1500, by Leonardo da Vinci
Sold for: $450.three million
This painting past Leonardo da Vinci depicts Christ, wearing blue Renaissance-era robes and making the sign of the cross with ane hand. In the other, he holds a crystal orb symbolizing the heavens, a reference to his function every bit Salvator Mundi, or "Savior of the World."
Over the years, the painting had been lost, rediscovered and restored multiple times. As a result, its attribution every bit an original work entirely by Leonardo has been debated, but today it is accepted equally authentic by most scholars. Almost recently, the long-lost slice was purchased at a 2005 New Orleans sale for $1,150 by fine art dealers Robert Simon and Alexander Parish, who idea they were ownership an overpainted copy. After eight years of inquiry and conservation, information technology turned out to be the real thing!
In November 2017, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan bought it at auction at Christie's in New York for $450.iii meg, making it the most expensive painting ever sold.
two. Interchange, 1955, by Willem de Kooning
Sold for: $300 million
This Abstract Expressionist work by Willem de Kooning, with its assuming lines and shapes executed in primary colors, displays the artist'south gestural marking-making and unmistakable style.
De Kooning originally sold Interchange, besides referred to as Interchanged, for $4,000 in 1955. In September 2015, the David Geffen Foundation sold it to Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin for a then-record $300 meg. The painting is now on loan at the Art Institute of Chicago.
three. "The Card Players," 1892–96, by Paul Cézanne
Sold for: $250 million
This series of five paintings, depicting men playing cards at a tabular array in unlike arrangements, belongs to Paul Cézanne's final menstruation, spanning the 1890s and early 1900s. Based on figural studies of local farmhands, "The Card Players" are among the Postimpressionist's best-known works.
In 2011, fine art collector George Embiricos sold one painting in the series to the majestic family unit of Qatar for an estimated $250 meg, at the fourth dimension a record price for a painting.
four. Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Ally?), 1892, by Paul Gauguin
Sold for: $210 million
Inspired by a trip the creative person took to Tahiti in the 1890s, this Postimpressionist piece of work by Paul Gauguin depicts two Tahitian women, one in traditional and the other in European-style dress, the first partially obscuring the second. Its apartment figures and vivid, expressive colors are Gauguin signatures.
After loaning the painting to the Kunstmuseum Basel, in Switzerland, for nearly 50 years, the Rudolf Staechelin Family Trust sold it in 2015 to Qatar's Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani for a lofty $210 million.
5. Number 17A, 1948, past Jackson Pollock
Sold for: $200 million
Colorful and cluttered, this oil-on-fiberboard work exemplifies Jackson Pollock's style. The influential Abstract Expressionist created it using his signature drip technique, which he had adult but a year earlier. an
Businessman and moving-picture show executive David Geffen sold Number 17A in 2015 to Kenneth Griffin for $200 million, a huge price, if non as high every bit the $300 million Griffin paid him on the aforementioned solar day for Kooning's Interchange.
six. Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, 1634, by Rembrandt van Rijn
Sold for: $195 1000000
Rembrandt created these depictions of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit a twelvemonth after the couple was married. The oil paintings exhibit the meticulous rendering of details emblematic of the Erstwhile Principal'south portraits.
Christie's in New York oversaw the individual sale of the 2 portraits in February 2016 to the French and Dutch states. French acquisition laws required that the paintings be owned separately, but the countries agreed that the works would ever exist exhibited together, at either the Louvre or the Rijksmuseum. The sale, the beginning ever to involve a joint acquisition, totaled $195 million.
7. No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red), 1951, by Marker Rothko
Sold for: $186 meg
In its expressive use of color — hither big areas of violet and red separated by a band of greenish — Mark Rothko's No. six (Violet, Light-green and Red) displays the characteristics of the Color Field movement within Abstract Expressionism that Rothko pioneered.
In 2014, Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the painting for $186 million, amidst the highest prices always paid for a Rothko painting.
8. Les femmes d'Alger (Version "O"), 1955, by Pablo Picasso
Sold for: $179.4 million
A Cubist work that plays with fractured perspectives and vibrant colors, Version O is the final piece in Pablos Picasso'southward 15-painting "Les femmes d'Alger" serial. Picasso created the series — inspired by Eugène Delacroix'south 1834 Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement depicting Algerian concubines — in honor of his friend and artistic rival Henri Matisse, who had recently died. impressive.
Featured in many Picasso retrospectives over the years, Version "O" sold at sale for $179.4 1000000 at Christie's New York.
ix. Nu couché (Reclining Nude), 1917–eighteen, by Amedeo Modigliani
Sold for: $170.iv million
This is one of a serial of female nudes that Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani painted for Léopold Zborowski. The pictures famously caused a scandal when exhibited in Modigliani's 1917 solo bear witness at Berthe Weill's gallery in Paris, which the police concluded up endmost considering of its "pornographic" subject area thing.
In November 2015, Chinese collector Liu Yiqian bought Nu couché at a Christie's auction for $170.4 million.
10. Iii Studies of Lucian Freud, 1969, by Francis Bacon
Sold for: $142.4 1000000
Iii Studies of Lucian Freud is one of several works Francis Bacon created depicting his friend and artistic rival Lucian Freud, who often returned the favor. The three panels of the triptych painted in Bacon's abstract, contorted mode — show Freud sitting on a wooden chair, surrounded by a muzzle..
The work sold at auction at Christie's in November 2013 for $142.4 one thousand thousand.
11. Twelve Landscape Screens, 1925, by Qi Baishi
Sold for: $140.8 million
Depicting colorful landscapes, such as mountains and trees, alongside masterful calligraphy, this gear up of 12 ink-castor panels showcases the whimsical style that typifies the work of Qi Baishi, a Chinese creative person well-known for his playful brushwork.
In December 2017, the painting sold at the Beijing Poly Auction for $140.eight million, the highest price e'er paid at auction for a Chinese artwork.
12. The Scream, 1893, by Edvard Munch
Sold for: $119.9 1000000
Undoubtedly 1 of the most iconic images in modernistic art, Edvard Munch's The Scream is belongs to his "The Frieze of Life" series, and appears in several versions, rendered in oil, tempera and pastel. Munch painted the haunting figure — its oral cavity open and easily on ears, set against a swirling red heaven — afterward experiencing an intense "gust of melancholy." The artist conveys emotional turmoil through his delineation of ecology elements, such as the threatening sky.
In May 2012, an anonymous bidder purchased this pastel rendition of the piece of work for $119.9 million at Sotheby's in New York.
xiii. Young Girl with a Bloom Basket, 1905, by Pablo Picasso
Sold for: $115 million
Immature Daughter with a Flower Handbasket is from Picasso's Rose Menstruation, in which he shifted away from the palette of his Blueish Period to warmer tones that often included pink. The painting depicts a young Parisian street daughter, naked and holding a handbasket of flowers.
The famous poet Gertrude Stein and her brother, Leo, who were friends of Picasso's, were the first owners of the painting, which was subsequently acquired by David Rockefeller. Information technology remained in his collection for many years earlier being auctioned off every bit part of the blockbuster Rockefeller manor sale in May 2018 at Christie's. It went for $115 million to the family of fine art dealer David Nahmad.
14. Meules (Haystacks), 1890, by Claude Monet
Sold for: $110.7 million
This picture is role of Claude Monet's well-known "Haystacks" series of Impressionist oil paintings. The artist depicted stacks of harvested wheat in a field at different times of the mean solar day and year, using multifariousness of expressive colors to capture the changing light and atmosphere. Meules is especially vibrant, showing the sun setting behind haystacks bathed in light.
The painting's initial purchaser was fine art collector Bertha Honoré Palmer. Information technology remained in her family for several generations until its sale, in a May 2019 sale at Sotheby'due south for $110.vii, an auction record for an Impressionist works.
15. Untitled, 1982, by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Sold for: $110.v million
Equanimous of blackness brushstrokes and harshly vibrant yellows, reds and blues, this piece of work is one of many skull paintings that American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat created over his lifetime, virtually of them highly valued today.
In May 2017, Japanese entrepreneur and art collector Yusaku Maezawa bought Untitled at auction at Sotheby's. The toll, $110.v meg, set several records and fabricated the late Basquiat — who painted the piece of work at age 21 and died of a drug overdose vi years later — the youngest artist to have his work bring more than $100 million at auction. The sale also marked the first time a painting created after 1980 earned $100 one thousand thousand or more than.
sixteen. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, 1932, by Pablo Picasso
Sold for: $106.five 1000000
This work is part of a series of sensuous paintings Picasso created depicting his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, who appears here every bit an abstracted figure, in the artist's Cubist style.
The painting belonged to Los Angeles art collectors Sidney and Frances Brody for almost 60 years, during which time it was exhibited just once. Later Frances died, it was put on the cake in 2010 at Christie's, where it fetched $106.5 million, the so-record for a painting sold at auction.
17. Silvery Car Crash (Double Disaster), 1963, by Andy Warhol
Sold for: $105.4 million
Role of the "Death and Disaster" serial that Andy Warhol created at historic period 35, this big, 8-by-thirteen pes, 1963 serigraph depicts the crushed interior of a machine subsequently a crash.
A European collector owned the work for around 20 years earlier selling it at auction in November 2013 at Sotheby's, where information technology was bought by an anonymous bidder for $105.4 1000000.
18. Garçon à la pipe (Boy with a Pipe), 1905, past Pablo Picasso
Sold for: $104.ii 1000000
Picasso created this oil the aforementioned year equally Young Girl with a Flower Basket, when he was just 24 years sometime and living in Paris. Belonging to his Rose Period, it depicts a young boy wearing a wreath of flowers and property a pipe.
In a May 2004 sale at Sotheby'due south, Garçon à la pipe sold for $104.2 1000000.
19. Nurse, 1964, by Roy Lichtenstein
Sold for: $95.4 1000000
Inspired past a 1960s romance comic, this image of a nurse'southward confront by Roy Lichtenstein exemplifies the American Pop artist'south bold, revolutionary style.
Nurse sold at auction in 1995 at Sotheby's for $1.seven million and once again, in 2015 at Christie'due south, for a staggering $95.4 one thousand thousand.
20. Dora Maar au conversation (Dora Maar with a Cat), 1941, by Pablo Picasso
Sold for: $95.2 meg
In this 1941 Cubist work, Picasso portrays his lover French photographer, painter and poet Dora Maar sitting in a chair with a cat balanced on 1 of her shoulders.
The painting sold for $95.2 million at auction at Sotheby'south in May 2006.
21. Portrait of a Swain Property a Roundel, 1480, by Sandro Botticelli
Sold for: $92.2 million
This Renaissance portrait depicts an unidentified nobleman belongings a roundel that contains a modest painting of a saint attributed to Italian painter Bartolomeo Bulgarini. Only around 50 Botticelli paintings all the same be, making them very highly valued.
In Jan 2021, the portrait sold at Sotheby'southward for a record $92.ii one thousand thousand, the 2nd-highest price ever paid for an Old Master painting, after Leonardo's Salvator Mundi.
22. Chop Suey, 1929, by Edward Hopper
Sold for: $91.nine million
This 1929 painting by American creative person Edward Hopper depicts two women at a restaurant tabular array, seemingly in conversation, with ii other figures visible in the background. Equally is typical of Hopper'southward piece of work, the scene evokes isolation and loneliness, suggesting poetic narrative interpretations.
Chop Suey sold at auction at Christie'southward in Nov 2018 for $91.9 one thousand thousand, setting a record for prewar American art.
23. Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972, by David Hockney
Sold for: $90.three million
With this painting, David Hockney revisited a composition he had begun and abandoned before. Inspired by the chance juxtaposition of two photographs on his studio flooring — 1 of a swimming figure and 1 of a boy looking down — Hockney worked on the initial picture for months before finally destroying it in 1971. The next year, nonetheless, he returned to the idea, creating Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures).
The painting realized $90.iii million at Christie'due south in 2018, becoming the most expensive painting by a living artist sold at sale.
24. Orange, Red, Yellowish, 1961, by Mark Rothko
Sold for: $86.9 one thousand thousand
Segmented into areas distinguished by unlike tones of orange, red and yellow, this Colour Field painting is considered one of Mark Rothko's most powerful works, inviting viewers' contemplation and reverie.
In May 2012, Orange, Red, Yellow sold for $86.9 one thousand thousand, at the time an auction record for a postwar artwork.
25. Triptych, 1976, by Francis Bacon
Sold for: $86.3 million
The iii large canvases composing Triptych characteristic abstract shapes executed in oil and pastel in Bacon's twisting way. The imagery is drawn from classical mythology, with one of the figures modeled on Bacon's friend, noted lensman Peter Beard.
In May 2008, Russian businessman Roman Abramovich bought Triptych at a Sotheby's auction for $86.3 million, making it the 2d-near-expensive Bacon painting, after Iii Studies of Lucian Freud.
26. Suprematist Limerick, 1916, past Kazimir Malevich
Sold for: $85.8 million
With its bright geometric shapes, this 1916 work exemplifies the suprematist style pioneered by Russian painter Kazimir Malevich. Malevich pushed the boundaries of abstraction with his insistence on the supremacy of shape and color over narrative and subject area.
In 2018, art dealer Brett Gorvy bought the painting for $85.eight million at a Christie'southward auction.
27. Nymphéas en fleur (Waterlilies in Flower), 1914–17, by Claude Monet
Sold for: $84.vii million
Nymphéas en fleur belongs to Claude Monet'due south famous h2o lily paintings. Created over the last few decades of his creative career, the works capture the color variations displayed by the lily pond in the Japanese garden at his home in Giverny, French republic.
This painting was part of the collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller for years earlier going on the block in the May 2018 Rockefeller estate sale at Christie's, where information technology fetched $84.7 one thousand thousand.
28. Black Fire I, 1961, by Barnett Newman
Sold for: $84.2 meg
Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman painted the thousand Black Fire I, which stands at nine-and-a-half anxiety tall and seven feel wide, every bit role of a series he worked on from 1958 to 1966.
In May 2014, a private collector bought the picture at sale for $84.ii 1000000.
29. Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890, past Vincent van Gogh
Sold for: $82.v million
Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of Vincent van Gogh'south virtually famous paintings. Created during the terminal few months of the artist's life, it depicts the homeopathic dr. in whose intendance Van Gogh's brother, Theo, placed him after his release from the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence mental hospital, where he painted The Starry Nighttime.
This painting, i of two extant versions of the portrait, sold at a Christie's auction in May 1990 for $82.5 one thousand thousand to Japanese businessman and art collector Ryoei Saito.
30. Triple Elvis, 1963, by Andy Warhol
Sold for: $81.9 meg
Andy Warhol repeated a motion picture still of Elvis Presley from the flick Flaming Star to form the three images that compose this painting. One of the artist'due south best-known pieces, information technology showcases his characteristic employ of glory and popular-civilization images.
In November 2014, Triple Elvis was auctioned off for $81.ix million at Christie'southward.
31. No. ten, 1958, by Mark Rothko
Sold for: $81.9 million
Like the other Rothkos on this listing, No. ten is a Color Field work, composed of large carmine, yellow and pinkish bands.
In May 2015, No. 10 sold for $81.9 million in a Christie's gimmicky-fine art sale.
32. Laboureur dans united nations champ (Worker in a Field), 1889–ninety, by Vincent van Gogh
Sold for: $81.3 1000000
Van Gogh painted Laboureur dans united nations champ while in a mental hospital the yr before his death. Completed after his masterpiece The Starry Nighttime, it depicts the wheat field visible outside his window. Those effectually him reported that the painter constitute its creation cathartic, distracting him from his inner struggles.
In November 2017, the painting sold for $81.iii million at auction.
33. Odalisque couchée aux magnolias (Odalisque reclining with Magnolias, 1923, past Henri Matisse
Sold for: $eighty.viii million
With its expressive colors and sculptural modeling of the figure, Odalisque couchée aux magnolias is among Henri Matisse's most famous works, depicting Henriette Darricarrère, his muse and favorite model for around 7 years, lounging luxuriously in his Nice studio.
The $fourscore.viii meg the painting fetched in the 2015 Christie'southward sale of the Rockefeller collection fabricated it the most expensive Matisse ever sold.
34. Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, 1980, by Francis Bacon
Sold for: $lxxx.8 million
This triptych past Francis Bacon comprises three portraits of John Edwards, a bar manager from the E Stop of London and close companion and confidant of Bacon's. Similar the all-time of the artist'south piece of work, it has a dreamlike quality and gives insight into his psyche.
In May 2014, the painting sold at auction for $lxxx.eight million to an anonymous buyer.
35. Le Bassin aux nymphéas (H2o Lily Pond), 1919, by Claude Monet
Sold for: $eighty.v million
Le Bassin aux nymphéas is some other painting in Monet'due south h2o lily series. Created in 1919, when the artist was most 80 years old, the work marks the point at which he began using larger, horizontal canvases for his water lily compositions.
In June 2008, Le Bassin aux nymphéas sold at auction for $80.5 million at Christie's.
These paintings are but the top tier of works that have changed hands for astounding prices. For more inspiring art past iconic artists, from Erstwhile Masters to contemporary innovators, see our wide selection of fine art on 1stDibs.
Source: https://www.1stdibs.com/blogs/the-study/most-expensive-painting/