These are the most expensive paintings in the world

Art is one of the most secure assets a person can buy. It rarely depreciates, can be stored easily, and its value does not depend on the state of the market. But what have been the most expensive art sales in history? Here is a list.

Some of the paintings on the list were sold by famous auction houses like New York's Christie's in public bids. Those are simple to track.

However, private deals are much harder to register, and the paintings listed were gathered from confidential sales reported by newspapers like The New York Times, BBC, or Bloomberg.

At number 12 comes Le Rêve by Pablo Picasso. According to The New York Times, billionaire trader Steven A. Cohen bought it for $155 million in 2013, around $194 million today.

Christie's sold the famous Sage Blue version of the famous four-part painting Shot Marilyn by Andy Warhol in 2022 for $195.04 million.

Anonymous sources told The New York Times that the cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder bought Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I in 2006 for $135 million, the record at the time ($196 million today).

Image: Wikipedia

The same newspaper reported a similar deal in 2006. Hollywood entertainment magnate David Geffen sold Jackson Pollock's No. 5, 1948, for $140 million (more than $200 million today).

Photo: By Taken from Art Market Watch.com., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7846487

Nu couché by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani sold for $170.4 million in a Christie's 2015 auction in New York.

According to the BBC, in 2021, the Netherlands government paid $198 million for The Standard Bearer, a self-portrait by Rembrandt.

Image: Wikipedia

This painting by Pablo Picasso went for $179.4 in a Christie's New York auction. Accounting for inflation, today, that would be over $200 million.

That same year, the Dutch government paid $180.6 million for a pair of portraits by their national artist, Rembrandt. The paintings were of Marten Soolmans and his wife-to-be, Oopjen Coppit, reports The New York Times.

Image: Wikipedia

An intermediary sold this painting for $183.3m in 2021 (230 today) and paid $112m to the seller, according to a Financial Times report about how Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier oversold paintings to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev.

Image: Wikipedia

According to the report of a private source to Bloomberg, in 2015, Billionaire Ken Griffin paid $200 million for this signature piece by Jackson Pollock (pictured here).

The same year, a Swiss private collector sold this Paul Gauguin painting of two Tahitian girls for around $300 million to a Qatari buyer. A secret source revealed the deal to The New York Times.

Image: Wikipedia

Billionaire Ken Griffin bought Interchange by Willem de Kooning in 2015, alongside Jackson Pollock's Number 17A. According to Bloomberg, he paid $300 million.

Photo: By Andrew Cho - I took this photo at the Art Institute of Chicago, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53843857

The most expensive art deal in history was done in 2017. Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev (mentioned in slide 12) sold a Leonardo Da Vinci painting for $450 million. He had purchased it from the Swiss dealer who had conned him years before.

Image: Wikipedia