The 10 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold
Half a billion dollars for a disputed Leonardo; nine figures for a nude that once scandalised Paris. The art market’s all-time record book.
On 15 November 2017, nineteen minutes of bidding at Christie's New York ended at a number no artwork had ever approached: $450.3 million, for a small, heavily restored panel of Christ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. The record book of art's greatest prices is really a record book of reputations — here it is, entry by entry.
The all-time top ten
(Private-sale figures are reported prices; auction figures are public record.)
- Leonardo da Vinci — Salvator Mundi, $450.3M (auction, 2017). Sold in 1958 for £45 as a copy; cleaned, reattributed, and finally hammered down as "the last Leonardo in private hands." Debate about how much of the surface is Leonardo's own continues among scholars — at this price, even the doubts are historic.
- Willem de Kooning — Interchange, ~$300M (private, 2015). Bought by hedge-fund founder Kenneth Griffin, reportedly alongside a Pollock, in a single half-billion-dollar afternoon.
- Paul Cézanne — The Card Players, ~$250M (private, 2011), purchased by the state of Qatar — one of five versions; the others hang in the Met, the Musée d'Orsay and other museums.
- Paul Gauguin — Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), ~$210M (private, 2015). Painted during the Tahiti years that also produced the works Gauguin could barely give away in his lifetime.
- Jackson Pollock — Number 17A, ~$200M (private, 2015). The other half of Griffin's afternoon.
- Mark Rothko — No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red), ~$186M (private, 2014), centrepiece of a Russian collector's dispute that filled courtrooms for years.
- Rembrandt — the Soolmans–Coppit wedding portraits, €160M (2015). Bought jointly by France and the Netherlands — the pair now alternates between the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum, a diplomatic solution to an unaffordable masterpiece.
- Pablo Picasso — Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O), $179.4M (auction, 2015) — the auction record until the Leonardo, from the most prolific painter who ever lived.
- Amedeo Modigliani — Nu couché, $170.4M (auction, 2015). The reclining nude whose 1917 exhibition was closed by Paris police; a century later, nine bidders fought for it. Modigliani died at 35 with almost nothing.
- Gustav Klimt — Lady with a Fan, $108.4M (auction, 2023) — the most expensive work ever auctioned in Europe.
The pattern in the prices
Notice who is not here: no living artist, and — except the Leonardo — nothing painted before 1600. The market's summit belongs to artists dead long enough for supply to be finished forever, but recent enough for museums to have made them household names. And the poignancy is constant: Vincent van Gogh, whose Portrait of Dr. Gachet set the world record in 1990 at $82.5M, sold a single painting in his lifetime.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VefL3LCoq10" title="Van Gogh's Van Goghs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen loading="lazy"></iframe>"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
— Pablo Picasso
Watch: Van Gogh's Van Goghs
The record's future
The half-billion barrier now plays the role the $100M barrier played in 2004 — unthinkable until broken. Whenever a museum-grade Leonardo, Vermeer or Michelangelo next escapes into the market, the Salvator Mundi number will fall. The paintings do not change; only the zeros do.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most expensive painting ever sold?
Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, auctioned at Christie's in November 2017 for $450.3 million.
What is the most expensive painting sold privately?
Willem de Kooning's Interchange, reported at around $300 million in a 2015 private sale.
Why are no living artists on the list?
The market's highest prices go to artists whose supply is permanently finished and whose reputations museums have spent a century building.