What makes an artwork worth millions of dollars? For some buyers, it’s the artist’s reputation, the painting’s place in art history, or the fact that very few examples remain available for private ownership.
Some paintings have sold for prices that once seemed almost unbelievable. From rare works by Vincent van Gogh to Pablo Picasso’s famous portraits, these 12 sales offer a look at art that has commanded extraordinary prices.
Vincent van Gogh /Wikimedia Commons
Vincent van Gogh, Verger avec cyprès
Van Gogh painted this orchard scene during his time in Arles, France, using soft colors to depict the trees and spring growth. The painting sold for $117.2 million in November 2022 as part of the $1.6 billion collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
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Edvard Munch, The Scream
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream during the 1890s using different materials and techniques. The 1895 pastel version held in private hands sold for nearly $120 million in May 2012 to American financier Leon Black.
Paul Cézanne, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire
Cézanne painted many views of Mont Sainte-Victoire, a mountain near Aix-en-Provence in southern France that became a recurring subject in his work. This version reportedly sold for $137.7 million, reflecting its place in Cézanne’s body of work and the small number of comparable paintings still held privately.
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Pablo Picasso, Femme à la montre
Picasso painted Femme à la montre in 1932, creating a portrait filled with geometric forms and bright colors. It sold for $139.4 million at Sotheby’s in November 2023, making it his second most expensive work sold at auction and the priciest artwork sold at auction that year.
Qi Baishi, Twelve Landscape Screens
This collection of ink-brush landscape panels sold for $140.8 million at Beijing Poly International Auction in 2017. Qi Baishi drew on traditional Chinese artistic practices in his landscape, animal, and plant paintings, making the collection especially appealing to collectors.
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Francis Bacon, Three Studies of Lucian Freud
Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud shared a relationship marked by admiration, rivalry, and artistic influence before their friendship fell apart in the 1970s. Bacon’s 1969 triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142.4 million in 2013.
Georges Seurat, Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite Version)
Seurat painted Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite Version) in response to criticism that his famous A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was too stiff and formal. The smaller version sold for $149.2 million in 2022 as part of Paul Allen’s art collection.
Pablo Picasso, Les Femmes d’Alger
Picasso completed the final version of Les Femmes d’Alger, known as version “O,” in 1955 as a colorful Cubist reinterpretation of Eugène Delacroix’s 1834 painting of women in Algiers. The work sold for $179.4 million in May 2015 to Qatar’s former prime minister.
Andy Warhol, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn
Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is one of four paintings in his famous series depicting Marilyn Monroe in different colors. Christie’s sold the painting for $195 million in May 2022, while the title recalls an incident in 1964 when artist Dorothy Podber shot at a stack of Warhol’s Marilyn paintings.
Paul Cézanne, The Card Players
Cézanne created five paintings featuring people playing cards during the early-to-mid-1890s. Qatar reportedly paid more than $250 million for one version in 2011, making it one of the most expensive private art sales ever reported.
Paul Gauguin, Nafea Fas Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)
Gauguin painted this Tahitian scene in 1892, showing two women seated in a tropical setting as he explored the people and places he encountered in Tahiti. The work was reportedly sold for $300 million in 2015, making it one of the highest-priced paintings ever sold.
Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Salvator Mundi depicts Jesus Christ and was once part of a British royal collection, but years of damage and overpainting left its authorship in doubt until restoration work brought it renewed attention. In November 2017, the painting sold at Christie’s for $450.3 million, setting the auction record for an artwork.
