Top Ten Most Expensive Paintings in the world
When you see a Picasso or a Van Gogh original, do you wonder about who owns these works? Some paintings are priceless and are a permanent part of Museum collections like the Mona Lisa (Louvre, France). But what about those works whose prices can be fixed, no matter how exorbitant? And who are these art lovers who can afford to spend such an obscene amount of money?
Godfrey Barker, of Art and Auction Magazine and Art Review says, “It’s always secret if only because the world’s very richest people are hiding from two kinds of character – thieves and burglars, and they are also hiding from the taxman.”
Here are the top ten most expensive paintings ever sold, and who they were sold to.
- Paul Cezanne, Card Players (5th version),1894-1895, oil on canvas; Sold: $269.4 ; To: State of Qatar
- Jackson Pollock, No. 5, 1948, 1950, oil on fibreboard, 2.4 m x 1.2 m; Sold: $162.7 ; To: David Martinez
- Willem de Kooning, Woman III, 1951-53, oil on canvas, 68 x 48.5”; Sold: $159.8 ; To: Steve A. Cohen
- Pablo Picasso, Le Rêve, 1932, oil on canvas, 51 x 38”; Sold: $155.9; To: Steve A. Cohen
- Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1987, oil, silver, and gold on canvas, 54 x 54”. Sold: $155.8 ; To: Ronald Lauder, Neue Galerie, New York
- Vincent Van Gogh, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890, oil on canvas, 23.4 x 22.0”; Sold: $149. 5 ; To: Ryoei Saito
- Francis Bacon, Three Studies of Lucien Freud, 1969, oil on canvas, 78 x 58” (each canvas); Sold: $142.4 ; To: Elaine Wynn, ex-wife of Steve Wynn
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876, oil on canvas, 52 x 69”; Sold: $141.5 ; To: Ryoei Saito
- Pablo Picasso, Garçon à la pipe, 1905, oil on canvas, 39.4 x 32.0”; Sold: $129.0 ; To: pasta baron Guido Barilla of the Barilla group
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- Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard, 36 x 28.9”; Sold: $122.2 ; To: Leon Black, New York financier
Information courtesy www.wikipedia.org