Top 30 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

11. Nu Couch (Sur le cote gauche) – Amedeo Modigliani

Price- $157.2 Million

This piece was done in 1917 and it is one of the most notable works by Modigliani. The painting depicts a naked woman on a red sofa that became a record-breaking piece of art. It is very similar to the artist’s other painting, Nu couche but this one is bigger and also shows the entire figure of the female from head to toe.

This one is known to be bold and even scandalous when it was originally painted. The Chinese stock-market-billionaire, Liu Yiqian has purchased the art and displays it in his Shanghai museum in 2018.

12. Le Reve – Pablo Picasso

Price- $155 Million

This piece is Picasso’s most iconic painting and the piece of art is of Marie-Therese Walter who was known to be Picasso’s mistress. The painting was done in 1932 and the meaning of the term, Le Reve is The Dream.

The artwork was owned by Steve Wynn for 12 years. Wynn agreed to sell this piece to billionaire Steven A. Cohen for $139 million but he wanted to show it off to his few friends in his casino and while talking excitedly, he accidentally thrust his elbow through the painting that caused a six-inch tear and immediately the value of the painting was decreased to $55 million. But Wynn somehow managed to repair the piece and Cohen bought it in 2013.

13. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II – Gustav Klimt

Price- $150 Million

The Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt has painted this impressionist, vivid portrait in 1912 and it was a portrait of an industrialist’s wife. The painting is one of the two formal portraits of Bloch Bauer.

Both of the portraits were looted by the Nazis in the time of World War II and it was then given to Vienna’s Galerie Belvedere museum post the war. After long years of battle, the artworks have regained the ownership of Bloch-Bauer in 2006 and it was sold to an unidentified buyer in China in 2016.

14. Three Studies of Lucian Freud – Francis Bacon

Price- $142.4 Million

This piece was done in 1969 by the Irish artist, Francis Bacon who painted his friend and artistic rival, Lucian Freud as a distorted figure in a cage. He painted the figure thrice in separate panels as a triptych. It was very bold but unsettling and strangely beautiful.

This piece was purchased by the ex-wife of casino mogul Steve Wynn, Elaine Wynn at Christie’s New York in 2013 for which she paid $142.4 million.

15. Qi Baishi, Twelve Landscape Screens, 1925

Price- $140.8 Million

The Chinese artist, Qi Baishi has done this piece in 1925 at the age of 62. He completed the piece with his style of using brush painting and calligraphy and that made it one of the most expressive pieces from his collection of works. It is the largest piece that he had created with its twelve landscape screens.

The lofty piece was sold at Beijing Poly Auction in 2017 and the selling price was $140.8 million that made Qi Baishi the first Chinese artist whose work of art sold at auction for more than $100 million.

16. No. 5, 1948 – Jackson Pollock

Price- $140 Million

This painting is comprised of the dripping of black, yellow, grey, and brown oil paint. It is considered to be the most iconic and chaotic piece that was done by Jackson Pollock in 1948.

The painting of Pollock that was sold to an unknown buyer in 2006, was not the original piece. But the following year, it was sold to a fellow artist, Alfonso A. Ossorio at a paltry $1500. The painting’s surface was damaged in Ossorio’s house and Pollock offered to repair it himself and ended up re-painting the whole thing.

17. Woman III – Willem de Kooning

Price- $137.5 Million

This one has been done by the Dutch expressionist Willem de Kooning in the early 1950s. This piece previously was hung in Iran’s Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. But after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the piece was deemed indecent and it was taken down.

Later, David Geffen acquired the work, and later in 2006, he ultimately sold it to hedge fund billionaire, Steven A. Cohen at the cost of $137. 5 million.

18. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I – Gustav Klimt

Price- $135 Million

This painting has been done by the Austrian symbolist, Gustav Klimt, and this piece is known as The Lady in Gold. The portrait is of a Jewish banker’s wife that is done in 1907. The phase is known to be the artist’s celebrated Golden Phase.

The owner of the portrait is the billionaire, Ronald Lauder who brought it in 2006 at the cost of $135 million. She has displayed it permanently in New York’s Neue Galerie that he co-founded.

19. The Scream – Edvard Munch

Price- $119.9 Million

It is the most inspired and important piece of work that was done by the expressionist Edvard Munch in the early 20th Century. It is the most iconic and recognizable image of our time and Munch painted this one in a collection of 22 works that were exhibited in 1902 in Berlin. The paintings depict the range of love and loss to death and spirituality.

There are four versions of The Scream that Munch has titled The Scream of Nature initially. This art was purchased by billionaire financier, Leon Black in 2012, and the painting resides in its original frame inscribed by Munch with his poem that describes the painting.

20. Pablo Picasso, Young Girl with a Flower Basket, 1905

Price- $115 Million

The painting is a piece of art done by Pablo Picasso in 1905. The painting was formerly owned by Gertrude Stein and later it has been a part of the landmark sale of the collection of the late David and Peggy Rockefeller at Christie’s.

Young Girl with a Flower Basket was the fourth painting of Picasso that was sold for more than $100 million at an auction and that made him the first and only artist with more than one piece that sold at the level.

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