This Is the Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold

Painted during Picasso’s Rose Period, ““Garçon à la pipe” belonged to the German Jewish banker and art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy until his death in 1935. His widow subsequently sold the painting – against his will – and it was eventually purchased by diplomat John Hay Whitney for $30,000 in 1950. In 2004, Whitney’s foundation sold the painting at Sotheby’s for $104.2 million.

This triptych depicting Francis Bacon’s friend and rival artist Lucian Freud was divided for over a decade until the late ’80s. The complete trio was first exhibited in the U.S. in 1999 and in the U.K. in 2013. In November of 2013, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” sold at Christie’s for $142.4 million to American billionaire Elaine Wynn.

This set of 12 ink-brush paintings by self-taught calligrapher Qi Baishi (1864-1957) – one of China’s most influential modern painters – was originally a birthday gift for a renowned Beijing doctor. The set was displayed numerous times in the ’50s and in 2017 it sold at Beijing Poly Auction for $140.8 million, making it the most expensive Chinese work of art ever sold.

This outdoor dance hall scene by Renoir belonged to the French painter Gustave Caillebotte until his death, then spent over 30 years in the Musée de Luxembourg in Paris. It was bought by John Hay Whitney in 1929 for $165,000. In 1990, Whitney’s widow Betsey Cushing Whitney sold the painting at Sotheby’s for $78.1 million to a Japanese art collector who is believed to have forfeited the masterpiece to debt collectors, who privately re-sold it for only $50 million.

Part of a series of unabashed nudes that caused a scandal upon their first exhibition in Paris, this Modigliani sold for $139 million (plus a buyer’s premium, totaling $157.2 million) which fell short of the estimated $150 million hammer price that Sotheby’s was aiming for. Nevertheless, at the time of its sale, it was the highest price Sotheby’s had ever received at auction.

This portrait of Viennese socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer is among multiple works by Klimt that were stolen from the Bloch-Bauer family by the Nazis during World War II and subsequently displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna. In 2006, after lengthy legal battles, five Klimt canvases were returned to Bloch-Bauer’s niece, who sold this portrait to Oprah Winfrey for nearly $88 million. In 2016, Winfrey sold the painting to an anonymous Chinese collector for $150 million.

This portrait of Van Gogh’s close friend – a doctor who cared for the artist during his last months of life – set a world record in 1990 when it sold at Christie’s for $82.5 million to a Japanese art collector named Ryoei Saito. After Saito threatened to have the portrait burned alongside him after his death (along with Renoir’s “Bal du Moulin de la Galette,” which he’d also purchased), the painting quietly sold – possibly to an Italian art collector – and its whereabouts are currently unknown.

Another Klimt work stolen by the Nazis and eventually returned to its owner’s heir, the first “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” is the subject of a 2015 film called “Woman in Gold.” The film details the years of legal battles that Bloch-Bauer’s niece Maria Altmann (played by Helen Mirren) endured in order to reclaim the painting. Intent on the work being accessible to the public, the real-life Altmann sold the portrait to American billionaire Ronald Lauder, who placed it in the Neue Galerie in New York City.

In 2006, hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen was set to buy this cubist portrait of Picasso’s muse and mistress from casino mogul Steve Wynn, when Wynn accidentally punctured the painting with his elbow. In 2013 – after a $90,000 restoration – Cohen finally purchased the painting from Wynn for $155 million ($134 million in 2006 dollars).

In early May of this year, this iconic Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe sold for $195 million at Christie’s in New York City, setting the record for the highest price ever paid for an American work of art. The silkscreen print, entitled “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” is one in a series of five depictions of the movie star produced by Andy Warhol in 1964. Four of the prints were damaged (and later repaired) when a guest at Warhol’s studio pulled out a gun and shot through a stack of the completed prints.

Philanthropist and art collector Agnes Gund sold this pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein to hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen for $165 million in order to create the Arts for Justice Fund, which seeks to promote criminal justice reform, reduce mass incarceration, and enhance support systems for people who are coming out of incarceration. In recent decades, Cohen has amassed one of the greatest private art collections in the world.

One in a series of six paintings by William de Kooning featuring women, this abstract expressionist piece was housed in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary art from the late ’70s to 1994. However, after the revolution in ’79 it could not be shown due to its subject matter. In 1994, media mogul Dave Geffen traded a 16th-century Persian manuscript for the painting, and in 2006 he sold it in turn to billionaire Steven A. Cohen.

This eight-by-four-foot painting done with synthetic gloss enamel paints was initially purchased for $1,500 by Alfonso Ossorio, a painter and close friend of Pollock’s. As it arrived damaged, Pollock eventually repainted the whole thing for Ossorio. Eventually it came into the possession of Dave Geffen (of Geffen Records and DreamWorks Pictures), who sold it to an anonymous private collector for $140 million. (Though the sale was reported in November of 2006, it might have taken place as early as May of that year.)

This self-portrait by Rembrandt belonged to the French branch of the Rothschild family for over 180 years. In 2019, it went up for sale and was declared a national treasure of France to prevent its export while the Louvre scrambled unsuccessfully to acquire the funds to purchase it. After they forfeited their right of first refusal, the Dutch State and the Rijksmuseum purchased the painting for  €175 million.

Painted for Modigliani’s main art dealer, Léopold Zborowski, Nu Couché is one in a series of nudes that caused a scandal during the Italian painter’s only art show in Paris in 1917. The painting passed through many hands before it was finally sold for $170.4 million at Christie’s to Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian, co-founder of the Long Museum in Shanghai.

From 1954 to 1955, Picasso produced a series of 15 paintings entitled “Les femmes d’Alger (Versions A through O)” inspired by an 1834 painting by Eugéne Delacroix. The series was initially purchased by art collectors Victor and Sally Ganz, who eventually sold 10 of the paintings. The remaining five were sold at Christie’s in 1997 as part of the Ganz Collection, with Version O subsequently selling again in 2015 for $179.4 million.

This set of full-length wedding portraits of a Dutch couple was purchased in 1877 by Baron Gustave de Rothschild and was rarely displayed thereafter. In 2016, owner Eric de Rothschild sold the paintings for €80 million apiece, through Christie’s to both the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum. The two museums will alternate showings of the portraits, displaying them side by side, but owning them separately.

A key piece in the so-called Bouvier Affair, in which Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier allegedly defrauded clients by buying paintings at lower prices, then overcharging collectors for the purchases that he pretended to broker, this abstract expressionist piece by Latvian-American painter Mark Rothko sold to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2014 for €140 million, which was potentially €80 million more than Bouvier had paid for it.

Another piece implicated in the Bouvier Affair, “Wasserschlangen II” was originally owned by Viennese Jew Jenny Steiner, who fled Austria during World War II. The painting was then confiscated by the Nazis and ended up in the hands of Nazi filmmaker Gustav Ucicky. Ucicky’s widow and Steiner’s heirs eventually worked out a deal to split the proceeds and sold the painting to Bouvier, who flipped it to Dmitry Rybolovlev for $183.8 million.

In 2015, Ken Griffin, a hedge fund manager and board member of the Art Institute of Chicago, bought this Pollock piece from the David Geffen Foundation for $200 million. “Number 17A” is considered one of Pollock’s most notable works and was featured in a 1949 edition of Life Magazine that pushed the artist into the spotlight. Griffin loaned the work to the Art Institute of Chicago.

This massive 10 by 15 foot Rothko painting resided in the private collection of the self taught horticulturist and banking heiress Bunny Mellon until her death in 2014. It is presumed to have been sold privately along with two other paintings from her estate for a total of $300 million, with estimates that No. 20 sold for $200 million.

This painting by French post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin was initially reported to have sold for nearly $300 million in a private deal in 2014; however an ensuing legal dispute involving an unpaid commission fee revealed that the painting had actually sold for $210 million – still a hefty sum – to the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Its Tahitian title translates to ‘When Will You Marry?’.

From 1890 to 1985, the French post-impressionist painter Paul Cézanne produced a series of five paintings of card players in various settings. While four of them reside at various museums in the U.S., London, and Paris, the fifth is in the private collection of the royal family of Qatar. The wealthy nation purchased the painting in 2011 in a private deal for over $250 million, which at the time was the highest price ever paid for a work of art.

Soon after it was completed, this painting by Dutch-American abstract expressionist painter WIllem de Kooning sold for $4,000. It subsequently sold for $20.6 million in 1989, making it the most expensive artwork ever sold during a living artist’s lifetime. Along with Jackson Pollock’s “Number 17A,” hedge fund manager Ken Griffin purchased “Interchange” from the David Geffen Foundation in 2015.

This painting of Jesus Christ, believed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci and then painted over until it resembled a copy, was found at an estate sale in 2005 and purchased for $10,000. It was then restored and authenticated by multiple sources and sold to Swiss dealer Yves Bouvier, who sold it to Dmitry Rybolovlev for $127.5 million. The Russian oligarch then sold it through Christie’s for $450.3 million to a Saudi prince who purchased it for eventual display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.