Unless you’re a billionaire, hedge fund owner or some kind of royalty, everything on this list will be nothing more than a distant dream. However, dreams can come true so take a look at the 20 most expensive paintings that have sold during auctions or via private sales.
#20 Claude Monet’s Meules — $110.7 million
Date sold: March 15, 2019
Price: $110.7 million
Location: Sotheby’s New York
#19 Picasso’s Fillette a la corbeille fleurie — $115.1 million
Date sold: May 8, 2018
Price: $115.1 million
Location: Christie’s in New York
#18 Munch’s The Scream — $119.9 million
Date sold: May 2, 2012
Price: $115.1 million
Location: Sotheby’s New York
#17 Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948 — $119.9 million
Date sold: November 2, 2006
Price: $140 million
Location: Private sale via Sotheby’s
#16 Qi Baishi Screens of landscapes — $140.9 million
Date sold: May 2011
Price: $140.954.580 million
Location: Poly Beijing
#15 Alberto Giacometti’s L’homme au doigt— $141.2 million
Date sold: May 11, 2015
Price: $141.285.000 million
Location: Christie’s New York
#14 Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud — $142.4 million
Date sold: November 12, 2013
Price: $142.4 million
Location: Christie’s New York
#13 Gustav Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer II — $150 million
Date sold: 2016
Price: $150 million
Location: Oprah Winfrey sold the painting to an unidentified Chinese collector
#12 Pablo Picasso’s Le Rêve — $155 million
Date sold: March 26, 2013
Price: $155 million
Location: Private sale
#11 Modigliani’s Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) — $157.1 million
Date sold: May 14 , 2018
Price: $157.159.000
Location: Sotheby’s auction
#10 Roy Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece — $165 million
Date sold: January 2017
Price: $165 million
Location: Private
#9 Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché — $170.4 million
Date sold: November 9, 2015
Price: $170.405.000
Location: Christie’s New York
#8 Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) — $179.4 million
Date sold: May 11, 2015
Price: $179.365.000
Location: Christie’s New York
#7 Rembrandt’s Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit — $180 million
Date sold: September 2015
Price: $180 million
Location: Private
#6 Mark Rothko’s No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red) — $186 million
Date sold: August 2014
Price: $186 million
Location: Private sale via Yves Bouvier
#5 Pollock’s Number 17A — ~$200 million
Date sold: September 2015
Price: ~$200 million
Location: Private
#4 Paul Gauguin’s Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) — $210 million
Date sold: September 2014
Price: $210 million
Location: Private
#3 Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players — $250 million
Date sold: April 2011
Price: $250 million
Location: Private
#2 Willem de Kooning’s Interchange — ~$300 million
Date sold: September 2015
Price: ~$300 million
Location: Private
#1 Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi — $450.3 million
Date sold: November 15, 2017
Price: $450.3 million
Location: Christie’s New York
