Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

There is absolutely no limit to what an art lover can pay for a spectacular artwork or masterpiece. Some of the best artworks of the world were sold for millions of dollars. And sometimes they costed more than the building or art museum they were kept in. Most of these paintings are still kept and showed at various art museum for the common public so that they can taste and relish the best art work ever produced by master artists.

In this top-10 list, we are going to explore the most expensive paintings of the world. We’ll start by first looking at Eight Elvises and end at The Card Players, a painting which is worth more than $250M today. So let the list begin.

Here comes list of top 10 most expensive paintings in the world:

  1. Eight Elvises

Original Price:   $100 Million

Eight Elvises ranked 10th at our top 10 list of most expensive paintings. It was painted by Andy Warhol in 1963. The painting is composed of eight overlapping images of Elvice Presley, a world renowned American rock artist and singer. It was sold in October 2008 to some private collector whose name is not disclosed to public for a value of $100M.

  1. Garçon à la pipe

Original Price:  $104.2 Million

Garçon à la pipe (English: Boy with a Pipe) is one the early artwork created by Pablo Picasso. He painted it in 1905 in his twenties and later sold it to John Hay Whitney for $30k. But this painting became one of the most expensive paintings when it was sold for $104M in May 2004 to Barilla Group.

  1. Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)
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Original Price:  $105.4 Million

Silver Car Crash is a master painting of Andy Warhol, an American painter who previously sold Green Car Crash for $72 million. It was painted in 1963 and sold in November 2013 for $105.4M to some unknown bidder in an auction held by Sotherby’s. This sale setted a new highest price painting record by Andy Warhol.

  1. Flag

Original Price:  $110 Million

Flag is the eighth most expensive painting in the world. It was painted by american veteran and painter, Jasper Johns who later told media that he saw a dream in which he painted an american flag. Next day, he decided to buy the material necessary for completion of painting and started creating the master piece which would later be his symbolic work. Flag was sold for $110M in March 2010.

  1. The Scream

Original Price:  $119.92 Million

The Scream is one of the four versions of a composition created by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Munch painter this version in 1895 which is said to be the most colourful and vibrant of all. This painting was sold in May 2012 for a record price of $120M to Leon Black.

  1. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Original Price:  $135 Million

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is an extraordinary artwork produced by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt in a period of 3 years. He started painting it in late 1993 and finished in 1997. This painting, as it says, is a portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer an art-lover and close friend of Klimt. The painting was sold to Ronald Lauder for $135M in June 2006.

  1. Woman III
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Original Price:  $137.5 Million

Woman III is an abstract painting based on a woman portraying. It was painted by Willem de Kooning in 1953. In November 2006, this painting was sold to Steven A. Covey for a record  $137.5M which made it the third most expensive painting ever sold till that time.

  1. No. 5, 1948

Original Price:  $140 Million

No. 5, 1948 is a painting by Jackson Pollock, an American famous abstract expressionist artist and painter. He creater his masterpiece in 1948 which was sold to many people before being sold to David Martinez for $140M in November 2006. The private deal was made successful by seller David Geffen who also sold many other expensive paintings to raise capital for buying a news company Idrawalot.

  1. Three Studies of Lucian Freud

Original Price:  $142.4 Million

Three Studies of Lucian Freud  became third most expensive painting ever sold when in November 2013, it was sold for a jaw-dropping $142.4M figure. It was painted by Francis Bacon with collaboration from Lucian Freud who was main subject of painting. The sale of this painting broke all previous record set by British artist; making it the highest price paid for an artwork of British artist which was before held by Bacon’s Triptych 1976 ($86.3M).

  1. The Card Players

Original Price:  $259+ Million

The Card Players is the world’s most expensive painting ever sold. It earned this title for a record-breaking sale of $259+million to Qatar Royal Family in 2011. The Card Players is a series of five paintings by French artist Paul Cézanne which he painted during 1894-95. Three versions in the series contained different no of card players and various combination of colours which made it distinct and unique from others. The last three versions had same number of players and composition but different colour combination. Every version was a masterpiece in itself and was acclaimed by artists and critics all around the world. This series is said to be the most enchanting and highly acclaimed artwork done by Paul Cézanne. In 2011, the Royal Family of Qatar bought one version of The Card Players for more than $250 million which made it the most expensive painting sale in the world breaking all the previous record ever set by any other artwork.

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