Top 10 most expensive paintings in the world

Art is enjoyed and received in different ways by everyone. For billionaires, owning a piece of art can mean proving their status.

The most expensive works of art in the world

Most of the famous paintings, especially those painted by master artists, are held by museums. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa holds the record for the highest insurance value in history - valued at $100 million in 1962, or $620 million in 2016, if inflation is taken into account. However, since the Mona Lisa is not for sale, at the top of the list of the most expensive paintings in the world is another Leonardo work as below.

10. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt - $158.7 million

After being commissioned to make the portrait, between 1903 and 1904, Klimt made more than a hundred preparatory sketches. After his careful preparation, Klimt used gold and silver foil to add decorative motifs in the painting. Painted between 1903 and 1907, the Bloch-Bauer portrait was stolen by the Nazis in 1941 then displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere for decades and returned to the family in 2006 after eight years. years of legal battles.

9. Willem de Kooning's Woman III - $161.6 million

De Kooning began drawing women in the 1940s. His paintings depict them in a graffiti style with wide eyes, enlarged breasts, smiles, and claw-like hands. Completed in 1953, Woman III is the only of a series of six paintings of women in a private collection. Between the 1970s and 1990s, it belonged to the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art but could not be exhibited because of strict rules about art following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

The painting was quietly exchanged for David Gaffen for Tahmasbi's Shahnameh, a 16th-century manuscript of the World's Longest Epic Poem by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010 AD. It was purchased by billionaire Steven A. Cohen in November 2006.

8. Roy Lichtenstein's Masterpiece - $165 million

This popular art painting inspired by 1962 comic strips uses Lichtenstein's classic Ben-Day dot and speech bubble as a sarcastic joke about his own career by many critics. and famous for his story predicting his future fame. This American pop artist was a leading figure in the popular art movement of the 1960s along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist.

7. Rembrandt's Portrait of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit - $182 million

Painted in 1634, the pair of portraits are said to be unusual in Rembrandt's work because of their size and depiction of subjects at full height. The portraits were made on the occasion of the wedding of Maerten Soolmans and his wife, Oopjen Coppit, dressed as wealthy newlyweds in Amsterdam. Although they are two separate portraits, they are always hung side by side. In 2015, the paintings became jointly owned by the Louvre Museum and the Rijksmuseum after the two contributed half of the purchase price.

6. Mark Rothko's Number 6 (purple, blue and red) - $194.6 million

Mark Rothko is known for bringing abstract expressionism into the art world with his paintings on large canvases in a full range of colors. Painted in 1951, Number 6 consists of large patches of color interspersed with other ambiguous shades and its unconventional name like other works by Mark Rothko leaves viewers guessing the emotions behind. picture.

According to many critics, the darker shades at the top of 6 represent Rothko's depression. The painting was purchased by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for one of the highest prices for a work of art through Swiss art broker Yves Bouvier.

5. The painting "When are you getting married?" by Paul Gauguin - $213 million

Painted in 1892, the time Gauguin arrived in Tahiti only to find it was nothing like he had imagined, and at least two thirds of the population had died from the disease brought by the Europeans when they colonized in the turn of the century. 18. As with most post-Impressionist artists, Gauguin's work was not appreciated during his lifetime. But now they're known for their synthetic style and experimental use of color.

4. Jackson Pollock's No. 17A - $203 million

Jackson Pollock is known for his contributions to the abstract expressionist movement, although his paintings are largely unpopular and are generally considered of low value in the art market. This abstract painting was created in 1948 and is considered one of the prime examples of 'drip painting', a unique art form that Pollock introduced in 1947. In 2016, Number 17A was was acquired by billionaire art collector Kenneth C. Griffin. Griffin is known for owning some of the most expensive paintings including Willem de Kooning's Interchange and Jasper Johns' False Start.

3. The Card Players by Paul Cézanne - $270 million

By the mid-1890s, the subjects of Cézanne's art were Provençal farmers, some of whom worked on his family's estate, engrossed in their pipes and playing cards. He adopted the style of 17th-century French and Dutch paintings depicting drunken gamblers in taverns. Painted in the early 1890s, it is one of five in a series that critics consider the cornerstone of Cézanne's art. The painting depicts men seriously bent over their game and, in a very simple setting, noticeably devoid of drinks and money, except for an unused bottle of wine.

2. Willem de Kooning's Interchange - $304 million

Willem de Kooning is known to be an influential painter who encouraged his friends and fellow painters Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock and many others to follow abstractionism. Completed in 1955, Interchange was one of de Kooning's first abstract landscapes and marked a shift in his style under the influence of his friend and artist, Franz Kline.

1. Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi - $450.3 million

Painted circa 1500, the painting depicts Jesus in Renaissance vestment giving a blessing. The painting is believed to have been lost in the 18th century and was kept during the 19th century by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Leonardo's pupil. Salvator Mundi is said to have arrived in England in 1625 and bequeathed it to Sir Charles Herbert Sheffield, First Baron, who auctioned it off in 1763 along with other works of art at Buckingham House.

The painting was then presumed missing until it was acquired in 1900 by Francis Cook, 1st Viscount of Monserrate. Cook's great-grandson sold it in 1958 for £45. Salvator Mundi was auctioned off in November 2017 and sold to Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Farhan, who acts on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture & Tourism. Often referred to as "the last da Vinci", Salvator Mundi is the only known painting by the artist still in private ownership.