This is the second part of our compilation, featuring the world’s most expensive paintings. The sums get mind-blowing, so the article is not recommended for the faint-hearted readers.
10. Silver Car Crash [Double Disaster] by Andy Warhol
Another picture by Andy Warhol, this time it was acquired for $105.4 million and it is by far the most expensive one by the legendary pop artist. It became the star at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale, when it exceeded the experts’ expectations with at least $30 million. A car crash is featured on it with a sprawled body inside the deformed vehicle.
9. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso
This extremely recognizable image by Picasso reached $106.5 million during a betting at Christie’s, making it the most highly evaluated of his paintings to be sold at an auction. It depicts one of his mistresses, Marie-Therese Walter. It is the period of symbolism for Picasso and there are numerous signs, hidden within the frames, which speak of his obsession with his much younger muse.
8. Flag by Jasper Johns
This second work by Jasper Johns, which finds its way into our list, was created back in 1954-1955. The sale was for $110 million and it is currently located in the MoMa museum in Midtown Manhattan. Johns arguably painted this after dreaming about the US flag. He claims that the image, which is highly familiar to the audience, gave him the freedom to concentrate on the execution itself and thus leaving critics baffled whether this was a painted flag or painting of a flag, as it clearly represented an interpretation by the artist as well.
7. The Scream by Edvard Munch
This eminent piece of art by Munch was the only one of the four versions, which found its place in a private collection. The price for this pleasure was $119.9 million. The artist has depicted his own fears and struggle with insanity, leaving the technical skills aside and focusing on the frank revelation of his anxiety. The person, whose gender is hard to figure out, might be the embodiment of both the painter and his sister, who was herself at the time in an asylum.
6. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt
This masterpiece was sold by Maria Altmann for $135 million. She struggled for years in legal battles with the Austrian government, trying to return Klimt’s paintings, seized by the Nazis from her uncle. His wife was none other than the model in the painting. Cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder bought it for his Neue Galerie in New York, being in the center of the collection, featuring European pieces of art, saved by the Nazi plunder during the Second World War.
5.Woman III by Willem de Kooning
Woman III was purchased for $137,5 million by Steven A. Cohen, who is known to have gathered $700 million worth of artwork. This picture in particular is the third in order out of 6 paintings, dealing with the personality of the woman and it is the only one that found its place in a private collection. It is an interesting fact that it was in Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art for about 15 years, but it had to be removed, due to the rules concerning the sex depiction, set by the Islamic government of Iran.
4. Jackson Pollock – No.5
Nothing is truly certain about the purchase of this painting, except for the price itself - $140 million. The mystery around it has raised a lot of speculations, concerning the identity of the owner and other details. It is an example of abstract expressionism and the value is said to be rising in the future, as very few paintings by Pollock have left nowadays.
3. Three Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon
This is the picture that has reached the highest price at an auction for all times – $142.4 million. It is also the highest-grossing piece of modern art. This triptych by Bacon shows the author’s close friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud sitting in a wooden chair. Finished in 1969, it presented an important person in Bacon’s life, who was also an artistic rival of his. The relationship between the two ended a few years after the drawing was done due to an argument.
2. La Rêve (The Dream) by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso is the artist with most works on this list, all of them from different periods of his career. This painting is worth the astounding $155 million. What is even more astounding though is that its previous owner, the casino magnate Steve Wynn accidentally damaged it just before selling it to Steven A. Cohen. He spent $90 thousand dollars on repairing it, so that it doesn’t lose its value. This Picasso is probably the most sensitive and famous – the artist’s mistress Marie-Therese Walter is drawn as she’s sitting on a red sofa with her eyes closed. The displayed erotic content is clearly visible as part of Marie-Therese’s face is actually a penis.
1. The Card Players by Paul Cézanne
The absolute winner of this rating is ‘The Card Players’ by Paul Cézanne as it was sold for approximately $250 million – the exact amount is not certain, some say it’s even more. This is a part of a five painting series by the French post-impressionist, drawn in his last period – at the beginning of 1890.The purchase was made by the Qatar royal family as it wanted the country to become the new art center of the world, opening within a few years the Museum of Islamic Art, the Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Qatar National Museum. With the rise of the amount of money being given for classical and modern art, we are certain that those records will soon be topped by new ones.
