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List of most expensive paintings

Paintings sold for the highest price From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of most expensive paintings
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This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The record payment for a work is approximately US $450.3 million (which includes commission) for the work Salvator Mundi (c. 1500) generally considered to be by Leonardo da Vinci, though this is disputed. The painting was sold in November 2017,[1][2] through the auction house Christie's in New York City.

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Salvator Mundi generally accepted to be by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1500)
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The most famous paintings, especially old master works created before 1803, are generally owned or held by museums for viewing by patrons. Since museums rarely sell them, they are considered priceless. Guinness World Records lists Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa as having the highest insurance value for a painting. On permanent display at the Louvre in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on 14 December 1962.[3] Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$1.039 billion in 2024.[4]

The earliest sale on the list below (Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh) is from March 1987; with a price of £24.75 million (£87.9 million in 2024 currency). This sale tripled the previous record, and introduced a new era in top art sales. Before this, the highest absolute price paid for a painting was £8.1 million (£23.7 million in 2024 currency) paid by the J. Paul Getty Museum for Andrea Mantegna's Adoration of the Magi at Christie's in London on 18 April 1985.[5] The sale of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers was the first time a "modern" (in this case 1888) painting became the record holder. Old master paintings had previously dominated the market.[3] In contrast, there are currently only nine pre-1875 paintings among the listed top 89, and none created between 1635 and 1874.[citation needed]

An exceptional case is graffiti artist David Choe, who accepted payment in shares for painting graffiti art in the headquarters of a fledgling Facebook. His shares were of limited value when he was given them, but by the time of Facebook's IPO they were valued at around $200 million.[6]

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The Red Vineyard (1888), the only painting the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh sold during his lifetime. It was sold for roughly US$2,000 (today's value).

The list is incomplete with respect to sales between private parties, as these are not always reported and, even if they are, details like the purchase price may remain secret. For example, on June 25, 2019, the American hedge fund manager J. Tomilson Hill bought a recently rediscovered Judith and Holofernes (1607) attributed to Caravaggio, two days before it would have been auctioned in Toulouse.[7] Though the Louvre Museum had turned down the opportunity to purchase it for €100 million,[8] the painting was estimated to sell for $110 to $170 million.[9] The actual purchase price was not disclosed, because of a confidentiality agreement attached to the private sale.[7] Another example is a 2019 sale of The Seated Zouave by Vincent van Gogh. According to some sources, the painting had been sold by Argentine art collector Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier for $300 million,[10] but the price was not confirmed by any of the parties involved.[11]

Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol are the best-represented artists in the list. Whereas Picasso and Warhol became wealthy men, van Gogh is known to have sold only one painting in his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, for 400 French francs (approximately $2,000 in 2018 dollars) in 1890, to the Belgian impressionist painter and heiress Anna Boch.[12][13]

Georgia O'Keeffe holds the record for the highest price paid for a painting by a woman. On November 20, 2014 at Sotheby's, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art bought her 1932 painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 for US$44.4 million (equivalent to US$59 million in 2024).[14][15]

Jeff Koons holds the record for the highest price paid for a piece of art by a living artist.[16] His Rabbit sculpture sold for $91.1 million at a 2019 auction, and remains the living artist record as of May 2025.[17]

Among the listed top paintings listed, only six are by non-Western artists. Five are traditional Chinese paintings by Qi Baishi, Wu Bin, Wang Meng and Xu Yang. In particular, Qi Baishi's Twelve Landscape Screens was sold for $140.8 million in 2017. The only non-Western modern artwork listed is that of the Chinese-French painter Zao Wouki's oil painting Juin-Octobre 1985, which was sold for $65 million in 2018.[18] Not listed here in this list is Chinese painter Wang Shaofei's The High Sun, which was appraised for $74 million in 2017.[19]

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List of highest prices paid

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This list is ordered by consumer price index inflation-adjusted value (in bold) in millions of United States dollars in 2024.[note 1] Where necessary, the price is first converted to dollars using the exchange rate at the time the painting was sold. The inflation adjustment may change as recent inflation rates are often revised. A list in another currency may be in a slightly different order due to exchange-rate fluctuations. Paintings are listed only once, i.e., for the highest price sold.

More information Adjusted(million USD), Original(million USD) ...
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Progression of highest prices paid

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This list shows the progression of the highest price paid for a painting since 1746.

More information Price, Painting ...
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See also

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Notes

  1. [N 1]
    The Wikipedia template uses a yearly average inflation. Using monthly averages gives slightly different numbers, most significantly for paintings sold early or late in a year with significant inflation.
  2. [N 2]
    Badr bin Abdullah allegedly bought Salvator Mundi on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture & Tourism,[20] but it has since been posited that he may have been a stand-in bidder for Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.[21]
  3. [N 3]
    Exact price (even the currency of sale) is not known, with estimates from $250 million to $300 million
  4. [N 4]
    Within weeks after a private viewing in Vienna in September 2012, Rybolovlev agreed to pay $183.8 million via his dealer Bouvier. At the same time, Bouvier was negotiating and eventually succeeded to buy the painting for $112 million from Ursula Ucicky, widow of Gustav Ucicky (the illegitimate son of Gustav Klimt and one of his models). Ucicky shared half with the heirs of the Jewish family from whom the painting had been seized in 1939. After The Bouvier Affair unfolded, Rybolovlev resold the painting for $170 million in November 2015.[29][30]
  5. [N 5]
    Some fear existed, that Portrait of Dr. Gachet had been cremated with the owner in 1996, but Gachet's portrait was privately resold to Wolfgang Flöttl in 1997 or 1998 for $65–$90 million through Sotheby’s. Before 2007, Flöttl had sold it for $100 million to an unknown buyer.[47][48]
  6. [N 6]
    Oprah Winfrey had bought the painting in November 2006 at Christie's for nearly $88 million. At that time this was the 4th highest (unadjusted) price at auction and 10th highest price on this list.
  7. [N 7]
    The triptych had probably been reassembled by the Italian collector Francesco De Simone Niquesa, but were resold to a person in the US before 2013[52][53]
  8. [N 8]
    This is the small version of the painting; the large version is at the Musée d'Orsay.
  9. [N 9]
    Privately resold for ca. $50 million through Sotheby’s in 1997.[48]
  10. [N 10]
    One of two pastel versions; another two painted versions (and lithography) exist, all created by Munch.
  11. [N 11]
    Rybolovlev resold Gauguin's Otahi before 2017 for less than $50 million.[60]
  12. [N 12]
    This stands as the most expensive painting by a living artist.
  13. [N 13]
    The paintings transferred to the dealers include a late Monet entitled Corona (Water Lilies) from around 1920; Renoir's Reclining Nude of 1902; Kandinsky's Autumn Landscape, Murnau from 1908, and Picasso's Striped Bodice from September 1943.
  14. [N 14]
    Probably the same day before the sale bought by Yves Bouvier for 62 million.
  15. [N 15]
    Alan Bond could not pay off the painting, and Irises was resold (probably for somewhat less) to the Getty Museum.
  16. [N 16]
    Price excludes sales commission and other costs.
  17. [N 17]
    Exact date of sale is not known.
  18. [N 18]
    Later in 2002, Thomson donated his private collection, including the Rubens, to the Art Gallery of Ontario[87]
  19. [N 19]
    Rybolovlev resold Te Fare in February 2017 at Christie's in London for $25 million.[94]
  20. [N 20]
    Annenberg subsequently donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  21. [N 21]
    Steve Wynn, who bid on the painting at auction, privately acquired the work several months later from the unidentified buyer for an undisclosed, supposedly lower price. Kenneth Griffin acquired it in 2004 from Wynn.[106]
  22. [N 22]
    The Nahmad family bought Suprematist Composition in 2008 at Sotheby's, New York, for $60,002,500 ($88 million in 2024 dollars) from the heirs of Kazimir Malevich.[120][121][122]
  23. [N 23]
    Usually estimated at "over €50 M" or "between 50 and 60 million Euros". On July 12, 2011, $75M was equivalent to €53M.
  24. [N 24]
    Re-sold for £12m to Stavros Niarchos in 1993.
  25. [N 25]
    A Belgian banker and collector who bought it in 1939 for $18,000. His was the last name on the 1988 provenance list; painting came from "a private collection in Arizona"
  26. [N 26]
    Son of Daniel (conductor & cellist) and Eleanore Saidenberg who were Picasso's New York dealers from 1955 to 1973.[144]
  27. [N 27]
    On Oct. 7, 2005, The New York Times reported that Steven Cohen bought van Gogh's "Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat" and Gauguin's "Bathers" (1903) from Steve Wynn for approximately $110 million,[148] though guesses range from $100–150 million. One or both of the paintings may thus occur higher on this list.
  28. [N 28]
    The paintings transferred to the dealers include a late Monet entitled Corona (Water Lilies) from around 1920; Renoir's Reclining Nude of 1902; Kandinsky's Autumn Landscape, Murnau from 1908, and Picasso's Striped Bodice from September 1943.
  29. [N 29]
    Exact price (even the currency of sale) is not known, with estimates from $250 million to $300 million
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