10 Most Expensive Pieces of Art Ever Sold

1. No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollock, $151.2 million: Allegedly sold to David Martinez by David Geffen via a private Sotheby’s transaction in 2006, this gorgeous abstract expressionist work Jackson Pollock measures 8 feet by 4 feet. Geffen is quite the art collector, and works from his collection actually hold the top two spots on this list.
2. Woman III, Willem de Kooning, $148.5 million: One of a series of six paintings completed between 1951 and 1953, de Kooning’s Woman III was formerly housed at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art until the 1979 revolution ruled it unacceptable. (Yikes.) Geffen acquired it in 1994 before selling it in 2006 to billionaire hedge-fund manager Steven A. Cohen.
3. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt, $144.8 million: Klimt’s most famous work (at least to college students) might be The Kiss, but it’s this one that brought the biggest cash prize. After bouncing around Austria and the U.S. for a while, the painting came into the possession of Maria Altmann, the niece of the woman in the painting. She sold it in June of 2006 to Ronald Lauder, and it now resides in New York’s Neue Galerie.
4. Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent van Gogh, $139 million: Van Gogh’s painting of the doctor who cared for him in his final months traded sellers before it was brought to the United States during World War II, when it was often loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1990, it was sold at Christie’s to Ryoei Saito, a Japanese business magnate. The painting went for more than $82 million at the time, making it the biggest art sale to date; adjusted over time, the figure’s almost $140 million.
5. Bal du moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, $131.6 million: Yet another appearance by Ryoei Saito; the world of high-dollar art collecting is pretty small. Renoir’s impressionist masterpiece was owned by John Hay Whitney for years, but in May 1990, his widow sold the painting for $78 million (now $131 million). Ryoei Saito died in 1996, and the painting is now thought to be owned by a Swiss collector.
6. Garcon a la pipe, Pablo Picasso, $119.9 million: This arresting image of a boy with a pipe was created in 1905, and originally bought by John Whitney in 1950 for $30,000. In May 2004, Whitney’s family foundation sold it via Sotheby’s to an undisclosed buyer that some said was Guido Barilla, owner of the Barilla Group.
7. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, Pablo Picasso, $106.5 million: Picasso’s 1932 work captures his mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, who also served as his muse. The large canvas — measuring 64 inches by 51 inches — belonged to Los Angeles art collectors Sidney and Frances Brody for 60 years, until Frances’ death in 2009. In May 2010, the painting was sold at Christie’s to an anonymous buyer over the telephone.
8. Portrait of Joseph Roulin, Vincent van Gogh, $101.3 million: Part of a group of paintings of the Roulin family, this rendering of patriarch Joseph was sold from a private collection in Zurich to the Museum of Modern Art New York in 1989 for $58 million plus some other paintings. The current value of the sale is more than $100 million.
9. Dora Maar au Chat, Pablo Picasso, $102.3 million: Picasso painted his lover, Dora Maar, many times over the course of their relationship, though this particular painting became the most revered and the most cherished by collectors. The sizable canvas (50.5 inches by 37.5 inches) was painted in 1941, when France was occupied by Nazis, and it then went to a pair of Chicago collectors. It changed hands and was eventually sold at Sotheby’s in 2006 to an anonymous Russian bidder who was likely Boris Ivanishvili. The $95 million sale is worth $102 million today.
10. Irises, Vincent van Gogh, $101.6 million: Painted the year before he died, when he was living at an asylum, van Gogh’s Irises is a beautiful but simple rendering of a field of flowers. Its 1987 sale set a record, going for $53.9 million (about $101 million today), and after a brief period of private ownership, it was sold to Los Angeles’ J. Paul Getty Museum.