Most expensive paintings in the world are an interesting category. It is quite hard to find reliable information about the cost of paintings. The price of one painting can be a lot more than the cost of another painting. There are even a number of paintings that were sold for zero dollar.
I made this list in order to help people who are interested in art, or who want to know what their favorite painting is worth and, believe me, you will see some surprising examples on this list!
Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings in the World:
10) The Card Players by Paul Cézanne: $250 million
9) Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II by Gustav Klimt: $135 million
8) Wreckage by Christopher Wool: $142 million
7) Nu Couché by Amedeo Modigliani: $150 million
6) No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock: $200 million
5) Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards by Francis Bacon: $212 million
4) Garçon à la pipe by Pablo Picasso: $179.9 million
3) Interchange by Willem de Kooning: $300 million
2) Sunset over the E
Most of the paintings below are housed in museums, but there are some which can be found in private ownership. In this list, you will find the top 10 most expensive paintings of all time.
The first thing to note about the most expensive paintings in the world is that they are all very old. There is a good reason for this; there are few opportunities for something painted in the last two hundred years to become worth the kind of money these pictures have.
When I say “worth” I don’t necessarily mean that these paintings were sold for their high prices, or even intended to be. A lot of these paintings were commissioned by wealthy patrons or bought by them. But it is no coincidence that every one of these paintings was created in a different social, political and economic climate and none of them in our own day.
The most expensive painting in the world is a triptych by Paul Gauguin of two Tahitian girls, called When Will You Marry? It sold for $300 million in February of 2015. The second most expensive painting ever sold was also by a French artist, Paul Cezanne’s The Card Players. The third most expensive painting ever sold was Edvard Munch’s The Scream, which sold for $119.9 million.
Triptych is a type of work of art that has three panels. They are usually hinged so that they can fold out from a central piece. There are many famous paintings that are triptychs, including The Last Supper (which is a triptych made up of three separate paintings) and Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (which shows the Virgin Mary and Jesus as a child).
The most expensive painting in the world that is not a triptych is Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt, which was sold for $135 million in 2006.
Here are some more facts about the paintings that have been sold for the highest prices:
The first artwork to sell for over $100 million was Van Gogh’s
A painting is something that is made to be viewed from a few feet away, but the most expensive paintings in the world are different. These paintings have been sold for millions of dollars, and they have been purchased by collectors who are interested in owning more than just a pretty picture. They want to own a piece of art history.
If you’re an avid art collector, you may not be able to purchase one of these paintings, but you can still find great works of art for your home or office at Art Brokerage. If you’re looking for something specific, such as a Rothko or a Warhol or even a Chagall, we can help you. You can find original artworks at relatively reasonable prices and make them part of your collection today.
When you start thinking about what’s going to go on your walls, it’s important to consider them carefully. It’s not just the right size and color or artist that matters—it’s how it fits with the other pieces in your collection. A painting by Mark Rothko is going to look very different on the wall than one by Henri Matisse or Salvador Dali. That’s why you need an expert to help you curate your art collection—you don’t want to end up with pieces that
The art market is a form of human commerce. At the top end, it can be influenced by supply and demand in the same way as any other market. But at the lower end of the scale, and more influentially, it is driven by sentiment and desire, which are not so much economic factors as psychological ones.
Some art historians have argued that all art is political. This is because there have been times when it was dangerous to create things that did not support the status quo. Whether in Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, the choice to produce art could be a choice between life and death. In such circumstances all art becomes propaganda, because it becomes a means of survival. In less extreme circumstances, an artist can still choose to create work that supports what they see as important, rather than what they see as expedient.
Art also has an economic value based on its cost of production and its usefulness in exchange. There are many objects made by humans that qualify as art but which were never intended to be seen as such: luxury goods like jewelry and furniture are examples of this.