With auction houses achieving new records all the time, don’t believe the moaning minnies, as the outlook for sales is more than on target for the year ahead. It would seem that the sky is indeed the limit where the global art market is concerned, with high-powered collectors prepared now more than ever to push the barrier of $100 million for works by big names, and with it possibly the envelope of good taste. The commodification of art seems to have no limit, much like the depths of the Qatar Royal family’s pockets. So dispense with caution and take some good buying advice; here Artlyst gives you the list of the most expensive works of art, so decide on your upper limit, get your cheque book at the ready, and pay close attention to the room – then check out a top ten that’ll blow your mind as well as every penny you have.
10. Alberto Giacometti – L’Homme Qui Marche I
L’Homme Qui Marche I, by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, was sold at Sotheby’s in January 2010 for £65 million. The work is one of the cast bronze sculptures comprising six numbered editions and four artist proofs, created by the Swiss sculptor in 1961. On 3 February 2010, the second edition of the sculpture became the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction, and the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction in the UK.
9. Pablo Picasso – Nude, Green Leaves, And Bust
Considered amongst Picasso’s greatest post-war paintings, it sold at auction in New York in 2010 for £65.5 million. The painting was in the personal collection of Los Angeles art collectors Sidney and Frances Brody for nearly six decades. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust is one of a series of portraits that Picasso painted of his mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, from 1932. Frances Brody died in November 2009, in May 2010, the painting was sold at Christie’s in New York City, who won the rights to auction the collection against London-based Sotheby’s. The collection as a whole was valued at over $150 million.
8. Pablo Picasso – Garçon A La Pipe
Here we are with Picasso yet again, with the work Garçon à la pipe as the first painting to break the $100 million barrier. The work sold for £68.3 million or $104 million. It was painted in 1905 when Picasso was 24 years old, during his Rose Period, soon after he settled in the Montmartre section of Paris, France. The oil on canvas depicts a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand and wearing a garland of flowers. The strange thing is that it was never made public as to who expressed such an interest in Picasso’s portrait of a smoking Parisian.
7. Jackson Pollock – Painting No.5
Pollock’s famous drip-and-pour painting was sold for a then record £73 million in 2006, according to The New York Times. Reports said US media magnate David Geffen sold the 4ft by 8ft work to Mexican financier David Martinez. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety as a major artist of his generation. He was regarded as reclusive and had a volatile personality. The artist struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married fellow artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related single-car accident when he was at the wheel.
6. Gustav Klimt – Portrait Of Adele Bloch-Bauer
According to The New York Times, the Neue Galerie paid £135 million for the oil painting in a private sale in 2006. Adele Bloch-Bauer was the wife of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who was a wealthy industrialist who sponsored the arts and the artist. Adele Bloch-Bauer was the only model to be painted twice by Klimt; she also appeared in the much more famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The portraits had hung in the family home prior to their seizure by the Nazis during World War II. The Austrian museum where they resided after the war was reluctant to return them to their rightful owners; a protracted court battle ensued, which resulted in five Gustav Klimt paintings being returned to Maria Altmann, the niece of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer.
5. Andy Warhol – Shot Sage Marilyn
Setting new auction records, in 2022 Christie’s sold Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn for US$195 million, making it the most expensive work of 20th-century art ever to sell at auction.
4. Paul Cézanne – The Card Players
Before the recent Gauguin sale smashed all previous records, The Card Players by Cézanne was believed to be the most expensive painting ever sold. Painted during Cézanne’s final period in the early 1890s, the artist created five paintings in the series. The versions vary in size and in the number of players depicted. Cézanne also completed numerous drawings and studies in preparation for The Card Players series. The work was purchased by the Qatari Royal family – it fetched a reported £158 million in 2011.
3. Paul Gauguin – Nafea Faa Ipoipo
When Will You Marry? (French: Quand te maries-tu, Tahitian: Nafea faa ipoipo) is an oil painting from 1892 by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin. On loan to the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland, for nearly a half-century, it was sold privately by the family of Rudolf Staechelin to Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani in February 2015 for close to US$210 million (£155 million), one of the highest prices ever paid for a work of art. The painting was on exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, until 28 June 2015.
2. Gustav Klimt Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer 1914–16
The leading lot of Sotheby’s Leonard Lauder sale: This portrait did more than break records—it made history. After a 20-minute bidding war, the work became the second-most-expensive artwork sold at auction. Klimt’s signature mosaicked texture and meticulous layering make Elisabeth Lederer’s gaze both distant and arresting. It’s one of only two full-length portraits still in private hands, and whispers of a UAE acquisition hint it may soon leave the market for good. There’s drama in its survival, too: confiscation, restitution, and nearly a century later, a room filled with eager collectors. Sold $236.4 million
1. Salvator Mundi: Is It Really By Da Vinci
Salvator Mundi (Latin for ‘Saviour of the World’) is a painting attributed in whole or part to the Italian High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated c. 1499–1510. Long thought to be a copy of a lost original veiled with overpainting, it was rediscovered, restored, and included in an exhibition of Leonardo’s work at the National Gallery, London, in 2011–2012. Christie’s, which sold the work in 2017 for $400 million, stated that most leading scholars consider it an original work by Leonardo, but this attribution has been disputed by some leading specialists, some of whom propose that he only contributed certain elements; others believe that the extensive restoration prevents a definitive attribution.