Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold

In September 2015, hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin purchased Willem de Kooning's abstract expressionist masterpiece Interchange in a private transaction for an estimated $300 million — at the time the highest price ever paid for a painting in a private sale. De Kooning painted Interchange in 1955 at the height of his powers, combining gestural abstraction with fragmented figurative forms in a canvas that measures 200 by 175 centimetres. The work was previously owned by David Geffen, who had paid $20.7 million for it in 1989. Griffin, who also bought Jackson Pollock's Number 17A in the same transaction (see below), donated Interchange to the Art Institute of Chicago. It is widely regarded as one of the defining works of Abstract Expressionism and the most important American painting of the post-war era. De Kooning's prices have risen steadily as the critical consensus around the New York School has solidified.

In 2011, the Royal Family of Qatar purchased Paul Cezanne's The Card Players from the Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos for a reported $250 million — the highest price paid for any painting in a private sale at that time. The Card Players is a series of five paintings depicting Provencal peasants playing cards; the version sold to Qatar is one of the smallest (97 by 130 centimetres) but considered the most refined. Cezanne worked on the series from approximately 1890 to 1895 in his home region of Aix-en-Provence, using local labourers as models. The paintings are credited with bridging Post-Impressionism and Cubism — Picasso named Cezanne the "father of us all." The other four versions reside in the Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Musee d'Orsay (Paris), and the Courtauld Gallery (London). Qatar's purchase, confirmed in 2012, was the first sale of a Cezanne at anywhere near this price level and signalled the arrival of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth in the ultra-premium art market.

On 9 May 2022, Andy Warhol's Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold at Christie's New York for $195 million — the highest price ever achieved at auction for a 20th-century artwork and for any American artist. The painting is one of five "Shot" Marilyns created in 1964, each depicting Marilyn Monroe in a different background colour, all famously shot through with a bullet hole by performance artist Dorothy Podber in 1964 (later repaired). The sage-blue version, measuring 101.6 by 101.6 centimetres, was the most pristine of the five. It was consigned by the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation of Zurich, with proceeds directed to children's healthcare charities. Christie's positioned the sale as a once-in-a-generation cultural event; the bidding lasted approximately four minutes. The buyer's identity was not disclosed. Warhol created the Marilyn series within months of Monroe's death in August 1962, using a promotional photograph from the 1953 film Niagara as his source image.

In February 2015, Paul Gauguin's Nafea Faa Ipoipo (Tahitian: "When Will You Marry?") was sold by the Rudolf Staechelin Family Foundation of Basel to a buyer later identified as the Qatar Museums Authority for a reported $210 million — at the time the highest price ever paid for a painting. Gauguin painted it in Tahiti in 1892, two years after abandoning his Paris stockbroker career and family to seek "primitive" life in the South Pacific. The canvas, measuring 101 by 77 centimetres, depicts two Tahitian women in a lush, jewel-coloured landscape, one in a white missionary dress, the other in traditional clothing with a hibiscus behind her ear. Gauguin's Tahitian paintings are among the rarest and most tightly held works in the entire art market — there are fewer than 70 significant examples, and most are in permanent museum collections. The Staechelin Foundation had held the painting since the 1930s, loaning it to the Kunstmuseum Basel for decades, until financial pressures prompted the sale.

In the same September 2015 private transaction in which Ken Griffin purchased Interchange, he also acquired Jackson Pollock's Number 17A from David Geffen for an estimated $200 million. Pollock painted Number 17A in 1948 using his revolutionary "drip" technique, applying paint by pouring and flinging it from above the canvas — which lay flat on the studio floor — to create a layered web of lines, splatters, and arcs. The painting is executed in oil on fiberboard and measures approximately 109 by 142 centimetres. Pollock, who died in a drink-driving crash in 1956 at the age of 44, left fewer than 800 authenticated works; the large-scale "drip" paintings from 1947 to 1950 are considered his masterpieces and the founding texts of Abstract Expressionism. Like Interchange, Number 17A was donated by Griffin to the Art Institute of Chicago, where the two paintings now hang in proximity — a $500 million gift to a public institution.

On 11 May 2015, Pablo Picasso's Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O) sold at Christie's New York for $179.4 million — at the time the highest price ever achieved at auction for any painting. Picasso created the series of 15 paintings and numerous drawings between December 1954 and February 1955, inspired by Eugene Delacroix's 1834 painting Women of Algiers in Their Apartment. Version O is the final and largest canvas (114 by 146 centimetres), depicting reclining and seated odalisques in a fragmented Cubist interior. The series was Picasso's tribute to his mistress Jacqueline Roque, who had recently become his companion after the suicide of his previous lover Francoise Gilot. The buyer in 2015, acting through a Christie's private client, was later reported to be a member of the Qatari royal family. The result broke the previous auction record by $50 million and triggered a wave of nine-figure auction prices for 20th-century masters that continues to the present day.

In September 2015, the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam jointly acquired Rembrandt's pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit from the Rothschild family for a reported €160 million (approximately $180 million) — the most expensive acquisition ever made by two public museums acting in partnership. Painted in 1634 when Rembrandt was 28, the pair of full-length wedding portraits — each 209 by 134 centimetres — depict a wealthy Amsterdam merchant and his new bride in exquisite black silk with elaborate lace collars. They are among the very few surviving full-length Rembrandts and the only ones not in a public institution before the sale. The Rothschild family had held the paintings since the 1840s; Dutch export laws had prevented any private sale abroad. The joint purchase arrangement, unique in museum history, allows the works to alternate between Paris and Amsterdam on five-year cycles.

On 9 November 2015, Amedeo Modigliani's Nu couche sold at Christie's New York for $170.4 million — then the second-highest auction price ever achieved. The painting depicts a reclining nude woman on a red background, executed in Modigliani's characteristic style of elongated forms, simplified features, and warm ochre flesh tones. It is one of the largest surviving Modigliani nudes (60 by 92 centimetres) and among the finest examples of his very short mature period: he died of tuberculous meningitis in January 1920 at the age of 35, leaving approximately 340 known paintings. The buyer was Liu Yiqian, a Chinese billionaire and self-made taxi driver turned museum founder, who paid with his American Express card — reportedly earning 300 million points in the process. Liu displayed the painting at his Long Museum in Shanghai. Modigliani's nudes caused a scandal when first exhibited in Paris in December 1917; the police closed the gallery after one day, citing obscene content. The series has now sold collectively for well over $500 million.

In November 2013, Andy Warhol's Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold at Sotheby's New York for $105.4 million — at the time the highest price ever achieved for a Warhol at auction and a record for the artist that stood until 2022. The work, created in 1963, belongs to Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series, in which he silkscreened newspaper photographs of car crashes, suicides, and electric chairs onto canvas, often repeating the image multiple times. Silver Car Crash consists of two panels: a silkscreened image of a mangled car accident (measuring 267 by 201 centimetres) paired with a blank silver panel of the same size. Warhol described the Death and Disaster series as his most personally meaningful work; critics have interpreted it as either a comment on American desensitisation to violence or as a meditation on mortality. The consignor was Aby Rosen, a New York real estate developer who had purchased the work a decade earlier. Its sale triggered widespread debate about whether Warhol's market had peaked — it had not.

In September 2015, hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin purchased Willem de Kooning's abstract expressionist masterpiece Interchange in a private transaction for an estimated $300 million — at the time the highest price ever paid for a painting in a private sale. De Kooning painted Interchange in 1955 at the height of his powers, combining gestural abstraction with fragmented figurative forms in a canvas that measures 200 by 175 centimetres. The work was previously owned by David Geffen, who had paid $20.7 million for it in 1989. Griffin, who also bought Jackson Pollock's Number 17A in the same transaction (see below), donated Interchange to the Art Institute of Chicago. It is widely regarded as one of the defining works of Abstract Expressionism and the most important American painting of the post-war era. De Kooning's prices have risen steadily as the critical consensus around the New York School has solidified.

In 2011, the Royal Family of Qatar purchased Paul Cezanne's The Card Players from the Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos for a reported $250 million — the highest price paid for any painting in a private sale at that time. The Card Players is a series of five paintings depicting Provencal peasants playing cards; the version sold to Qatar is one of the smallest (97 by 130 centimetres) but considered the most refined. Cezanne worked on the series from approximately 1890 to 1895 in his home region of Aix-en-Provence, using local labourers as models. The paintings are credited with bridging Post-Impressionism and Cubism — Picasso named Cezanne the "father of us all." The other four versions reside in the Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Musee d'Orsay (Paris), and the Courtauld Gallery (London). Qatar's purchase, confirmed in 2012, was the first sale of a Cezanne at anywhere near this price level and signalled the arrival of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth in the ultra-premium art market.

On 9 May 2022, Andy Warhol's Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold at Christie's New York for $195 million — the highest price ever achieved at auction for a 20th-century artwork and for any American artist. The painting is one of five "Shot" Marilyns created in 1964, each depicting Marilyn Monroe in a different background colour, all famously shot through with a bullet hole by performance artist Dorothy Podber in 1964 (later repaired). The sage-blue version, measuring 101.6 by 101.6 centimetres, was the most pristine of the five. It was consigned by the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation of Zurich, with proceeds directed to children's healthcare charities. Christie's positioned the sale as a once-in-a-generation cultural event; the bidding lasted approximately four minutes. The buyer's identity was not disclosed. Warhol created the Marilyn series within months of Monroe's death in August 1962, using a promotional photograph from the 1953 film Niagara as his source image.

In February 2015, Paul Gauguin's Nafea Faa Ipoipo (Tahitian: "When Will You Marry?") was sold by the Rudolf Staechelin Family Foundation of Basel to a buyer later identified as the Qatar Museums Authority for a reported $210 million — at the time the highest price ever paid for a painting. Gauguin painted it in Tahiti in 1892, two years after abandoning his Paris stockbroker career and family to seek "primitive" life in the South Pacific. The canvas, measuring 101 by 77 centimetres, depicts two Tahitian women in a lush, jewel-coloured landscape, one in a white missionary dress, the other in traditional clothing with a hibiscus behind her ear. Gauguin's Tahitian paintings are among the rarest and most tightly held works in the entire art market — there are fewer than 70 significant examples, and most are in permanent museum collections. The Staechelin Foundation had held the painting since the 1930s, loaning it to the Kunstmuseum Basel for decades, until financial pressures prompted the sale.

In the same September 2015 private transaction in which Ken Griffin purchased Interchange, he also acquired Jackson Pollock's Number 17A from David Geffen for an estimated $200 million. Pollock painted Number 17A in 1948 using his revolutionary "drip" technique, applying paint by pouring and flinging it from above the canvas — which lay flat on the studio floor — to create a layered web of lines, splatters, and arcs. The painting is executed in oil on fiberboard and measures approximately 109 by 142 centimetres. Pollock, who died in a drink-driving crash in 1956 at the age of 44, left fewer than 800 authenticated works; the large-scale "drip" paintings from 1947 to 1950 are considered his masterpieces and the founding texts of Abstract Expressionism. Like Interchange, Number 17A was donated by Griffin to the Art Institute of Chicago, where the two paintings now hang in proximity — a $500 million gift to a public institution.

On 11 May 2015, Pablo Picasso's Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O) sold at Christie's New York for $179.4 million — at the time the highest price ever achieved at auction for any painting. Picasso created the series of 15 paintings and numerous drawings between December 1954 and February 1955, inspired by Eugene Delacroix's 1834 painting Women of Algiers in Their Apartment. Version O is the final and largest canvas (114 by 146 centimetres), depicting reclining and seated odalisques in a fragmented Cubist interior. The series was Picasso's tribute to his mistress Jacqueline Roque, who had recently become his companion after the suicide of his previous lover Francoise Gilot. The buyer in 2015, acting through a Christie's private client, was later reported to be a member of the Qatari royal family. The result broke the previous auction record by $50 million and triggered a wave of nine-figure auction prices for 20th-century masters that continues to the present day.

In September 2015, the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam jointly acquired Rembrandt's pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit from the Rothschild family for a reported €160 million (approximately $180 million) — the most expensive acquisition ever made by two public museums acting in partnership. Painted in 1634 when Rembrandt was 28, the pair of full-length wedding portraits — each 209 by 134 centimetres — depict a wealthy Amsterdam merchant and his new bride in exquisite black silk with elaborate lace collars. They are among the very few surviving full-length Rembrandts and the only ones not in a public institution before the sale. The Rothschild family had held the paintings since the 1840s; Dutch export laws had prevented any private sale abroad. The joint purchase arrangement, unique in museum history, allows the works to alternate between Paris and Amsterdam on five-year cycles.

On 9 November 2015, Amedeo Modigliani's Nu couche sold at Christie's New York for $170.4 million — then the second-highest auction price ever achieved. The painting depicts a reclining nude woman on a red background, executed in Modigliani's characteristic style of elongated forms, simplified features, and warm ochre flesh tones. It is one of the largest surviving Modigliani nudes (60 by 92 centimetres) and among the finest examples of his very short mature period: he died of tuberculous meningitis in January 1920 at the age of 35, leaving approximately 340 known paintings. The buyer was Liu Yiqian, a Chinese billionaire and self-made taxi driver turned museum founder, who paid with his American Express card — reportedly earning 300 million points in the process. Liu displayed the painting at his Long Museum in Shanghai. Modigliani's nudes caused a scandal when first exhibited in Paris in December 1917; the police closed the gallery after one day, citing obscene content. The series has now sold collectively for well over $500 million.

In November 2013, Andy Warhol's Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold at Sotheby's New York for $105.4 million — at the time the highest price ever achieved for a Warhol at auction and a record for the artist that stood until 2022. The work, created in 1963, belongs to Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series, in which he silkscreened newspaper photographs of car crashes, suicides, and electric chairs onto canvas, often repeating the image multiple times. Silver Car Crash consists of two panels: a silkscreened image of a mangled car accident (measuring 267 by 201 centimetres) paired with a blank silver panel of the same size. Warhol described the Death and Disaster series as his most personally meaningful work; critics have interpreted it as either a comment on American desensitisation to violence or as a meditation on mortality. The consignor was Aby Rosen, a New York real estate developer who had purchased the work a decade earlier. Its sale triggered widespread debate about whether Warhol's market had peaked — it had not.