Putting Price Tags On The World’s Most Expensive Paintings
From the Mona Lisa to Guernica, great paintings exercise a hold on our imagination and sense of wonderment, drawing millions of people from all over the world to visit museums such as the Prado and the Louvre.
Are you curious about how much these art works cost?
Let’s start putting some price tags on the world’s most expensive paintings.
Note: All figures below are given in US dollars adjusted to their current value for inflation.
Anna’s Light: $138.3 Million
Abstract expressionist Barnett Newman created this sea of red in 1968. It sold for an astonishing $138.3 million in 2013.
Bernard Gotfryd, Wikimedia Commons
Femme À La Montre: $139.3 Million
A depiction of Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, this 1932 piece (In English: Woman with a watch) was sold for $139.3 million in November 2023.
Young Girl With A Flower Basket: $139.5 Million
An early Picasso work, this 1905 portrait helped bring the artist to a wider audience. It sold for $139.5 million in 2018.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
Eight Elvises: $141.5 Million
Another landmark in the pop art movement, this 1963 Andy Warhol silkscreen print of Elvis drawing a pistol raked in $141.
5 million in 2008.
Bernard Gotfryd, Wikimedia Commons
Dora Maar Au Chat: $143.9 Million
This 1941 portrait of Picasso’s lover Dora Maar with a cat perched on her shoulder (In English: Dora Maar with Cat) sold for $143.9 million in 2006.
Irises: $144.6 Million
Van Gogh’s love of the natural beauty around him is evident in Irises, completed in 1889. The masterpiece sold for $144.
6 million in 1987.
Vincent van Gogh, Wikimedia Commons
L’Homme Assis Au Verre: $145.6 Million
This 1914 work by Picasso (In English: The Man Seated at the Glass) is representative of the cubist art movement that was in its heyday at the time. It fetched $145.6 million in 2011.
Portrait Of Joseph Roulin: $147.5 Million
Van Gogh’s portraits have always aroused great interest from audiences and critics alike. This portrayal of a local postman was done in 1888 during a prolific and comparatively happy period of the artist’s life. It sold for $147.
5 million in 1989, in an era when many Van Gogh works went for high prices.
Vincent van Gogh, Wikimedia Commons
Nu Au Plateau De Sculpteur: $148.8 Million
This Picasso piece (In English: Nude, Green Leaves and Bust) from 1932 sold for $148.8 million in 2010. Another depiction of Marie-Thérèse Walter, the painting is a great example of his distinctive style.
PassionatoAssai, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Flag: $153.7 Million
Jasper Johns painted over a collage of miscellaneous newspaper clippings to create this 1955 image of the flag of the United States.
Its sale in 2010—for $153.7 million—was the most ever paid for a painting by a living artist.
La Montaigne Sainte-Victoire: $155 Million
Paul Cézanne’s landscape painting of a mountain in Provence, done in 1906, was sold for $155 million in 2022. Cézanne was fascinated by this mountain, which was the subject of 30 of his paintings.
Paul Cézanne, Wikimedia Commons
Nu Couché Au Coussin Bleu: $157 Million
This 1916 Modigliani (In English:
Reclining Nude on Blue Cushion) was sold for $157 million in 2012. It went to the Russian billionaire Dmitri Rybolovlev.
Amedeo Modigliani, Wikimedia Commons
Otahi: $157 Million
Otahi by Paul Gauguin garnered $157 million upon its sale in 2013. The painting of a Tahitian woman was one of the pieces later embroiled in a lawsuit by the buyer, Dmitry Rybolovlev, against the seller and Sotheby’s auction house.
Paul Gauguin, Wikimedia Commons
The Scream: $159.2 Million
Edvard Munch’s 1893 masterpiece, The Scream, has unsettled observers for generations. It was auctioned for $159.
2 million in 2012.
The Models: $167.8 Million
Georges Seurat is known for his technique of making thousands of tiny points of paint to create colors. His remarkable work Les Poseuses Ensemble (In English: The Models) sold for $167.8 million in 2022.
Georges Seurat, Wikimedia Commons
Boy With A Pipe: $168 Million
This unusual piece by a 24-year-old Picasso sold for $168 million in 2004. The portrait is a standout example of the legendary Spaniard’s early work.
Twelve Landscape Screens: $175 Million
Twelve Landscape Screens by Qi Baishi was sold for $175 million to an anonymous buyer in Beijing in 2017. This enchanting series of scrolls depicting Chinese landscapes with calligraphy is the most expensive work by a non-Western artist.
Zheng Jingkang, Wikimedia Commons
Bal Du Moulin De La Galette: $182.1 Million
Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known for his depictions of everyday social life in France in the late 1800s.
The best of these snapshots of life, Bal du moulin de la Galette, sold for $182.1 million in 1990.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Wikimedia Commons
Three Studies Of Lucian Freud: $186.3 Million
Francis Bacon’s 1969 Three Studies of Lucian Freud is the most recent work to enter this list. The critically acclaimed three-part depiction of Bacon’s lifelong friend, Lucian Freud, was sold in 2013 for $186.3 million.
Portrait Of Adele Bloch-Bauer II: $191.4 Million
Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, like many of his other works, passed through the hands of several owners after being stolen by the Nazis on the eve of WWII. It was sold by Oprah Winfrey to an anonymous buyer in 2016 for $191.4 million.
Gustav Klimt, Wikimedia Commons
Nu Couché (Sur Le Côté Gauche): $190.7 Million
Modigliani’s Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) (In English: Reclining Nude (On The Left Side)) is from the same series of works as the aforementioned Nu couché. It sold for $190.
7 million in 2018.
Amedeo Modigliani, Wikimedia Commons
Portrait Of Dr Gachet: $192.4 Million
While he was unable to sell his work during his own lifetime, Van Gogh’s paintings are now known for the steep prices collectors will pay for them. The most expensive of these was the Portrait of Dr Gachet, which went for $192.4 million in 1990.
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn: $195 Million
Andy Warhol’s 1964 Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is a silkscreen portrait of Marilyn Monroe. A classic example of the pop art movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, the painting sold for $195 million in 2022.
Le Rêve: $202.7 Million
Picasso’s portrait Le Rêve (In English: The Dream) displays many of his most familiar stylistic elements. In 2013, Steven A.
Cohen paid $202.7 million to add the painting to his growing collection.
Portrait Of Adele Bloch-Bauer I: $204 Million
Not the first or last time we see a Klimt masterwork on this list, his 1912 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (also known as Woman in Gold) was sold for $204 million in 2006. This made it the world’s most expensive painting until being surpassed a few months later by the sale of Pollock’s No. 5.
Gustav Klimt, Wikimedia Commons
Masterpiece: $205.1 Million
Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings came to a wide audience in the 1960s. One of his best known works is the cleverly titled Masterpiece. It was sold for $205.
1 million in 2017 to American hedge fund manager Steven A Cohen, who had previously acquired Woman III.
Woman III: $207.8 Million
Willem De Kooning’s six Woman paintings (numbered I through VI) are recognized as some of the most important creations of his career. Woman III was sold for $207.8 million in 2006.
Jack de Nijs, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
No. 5, 1948: $211.6 Million
Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948 sold for $211.6 million in 2006, the most ever paid for a painting up to that time.
It would hold that place until the sale of Cézanne’s Card Players in 2011.
Nu Couché: $219 Million
The style of Amedeo Modigliani is instantly recognizable and has been the target of many an imitator over the decades. Modigliani’s 1917 paintings of reclining women are some of the most familiar works in his repertoire. They caused a stir when they were first exhibited, but have since become highly desired by collectors. The most famous of them, Nu couché (In English: Reclining Nude), sold for $219 million in 2015.
The Standard Bearer: $222.6 Million
Rembrandt’s 1636 self-portrait, The Standard Bearer, was acquired by the national museum (Rijksmuseum) of the Netherlands for $222.6 million from the Rothschild banking family.
The transaction occurred in 2022 and proceeded after the Louvre failed to obtain the necessary funding for their own attempted purchase.
The Women Of Algiers (Version O): $230.6 Million
Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) (In English: The Women Of Algiers (Version O))was part of a set of paintings created by Picasso in the 1950s. Done as a tribute to earlier artists Delacroix and Renoir, these works represent a return to Picasso’s vigorous early style. A Qatari billionaire paid $230.
6 million for Les Femmes in 2015.
Pendant Portraits Of Maerten Soolmans And Oopjen Coppit: $231 Million
Rembrandt is remembered through the ages for the facial expressions of his subjects and his mastery of the use of light and shadow. His Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit are separate pictures of two newlyweds. The portraits were jointly purchased by the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre in 2016 for $231 million.
No. 6 (Violet, Green And Red): $231 Million
Mark Rothko earned critical and commercial success in the mid-20th Century for his bold abstract paintings.
This piece from his classic early 1950s period, titled No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red), sold in 2014 for $231 million.
Consuelo Kanaga, Wikimedia Commons
Water Serpents II: $240 Million
The unique style of Gustav Klimt is immediately evident in his Water Serpents II (In German: Wasserschlangen II). Stolen by the Nazis in 1938, this mysterious depiction of feminine beauty was purchased for $240 million in 2013 by a Russian billionaire, with proceeds going to the family of its pre-Nazi owner.
Gustav Klimt, Wikimedia Commons
Number 17A: $257 Million
Abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock’s groundbreaking art divided critics during his lifetime, but there’s nothing abstract about the value collectors place on his work. Pollock’s Number 17A, a classic example of his dynamic style, sold for $257 million in 2015 to Kenneth C Griffin.
When Will You Marry?: $270 Million
Paul Gauguin is renowned as the stockbroker-turned-artist whose depictions of life in Polynesia are now highly prized.
His When Will You Marry? (In Tahitian: Nafea Faa Ipoipo) was bought by the State of Qatar in 2014 for $270 million.
Card Players: $339 Million
Paul Cézanne’s Card Players was sold for $339 million in 2011, and occupied the number one position as the most expensive painting until 2015. It is a fine example of the post-impressionist style of art popular in the 1890s and 1900s.
As the title suggests, it depicts two men sitting at a table playing cards.
Paul Cézanne, Wikimedia Commons
Interchange: $386 Million
In 2015, Kenneth C Griffin acquired Willem de Kooning’s Interchange for around $386 million. An abstract expressionist piece, Interchange enjoyed the top spot on the list of the world’s most expensive paintings for two years. It has occupied second place since being outsold by Salvator Mundi.
Salvator Mundi: $559 Million
The most expensive painting ever sold is Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi. This Renaissance portrait of Christ holding a crystal orb was rediscovered in 2005.
Leonardo da Vinci, Wikimedia Commons
The Mona Lisa: $860 Million
Of course, no list of the world’s most expensive paintings would be complete without mention of the Mona Lisa. Now, technically, this painting is priceless and cannot be sold—it belongs to the French people by law and has been housed at the Louvre Museum since 1804. But if a price had to be put on this world-famous masterpiece, it would cost somewhere around $860 million.
While much of the painting’s value comes from its rarity—we have very of few of Da Vinci’s authentic paintings left—its fame stems from an attempt to steal the painting, in 1911. Believing that it should belong to the Italian people, Vincenzo Peruggia stole the painting from the Louvre. He kept it hidden in his apartment for two years but was caught when he tried to sell the painting to a gallery in Florence.
The Mona Lisa was recovered in 1913 and is now kept safe from theft and vandalism in a climate-controlled display case made of bulletproof glass.
Leonardo da Vinci, Wikimedia Commons
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