Most Expensive World Artists

16 August, 2017

Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 Untitled painting sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby's in New York on Thursday, May 18, 2017 became the sixth most expensive work ever sold at auction. Only 10 other works have broken the $100 million mark before. The sale went down in Sotheby's, New York at the end of spring 2017 bidding season. The art piece was bought by a Japanese e-commerce mogul Yusaku Maezawa.

Whilst Basquiat's skull joins the extremely exclusive 'Hundred Million Dollar Club', it still doesn't come close to being the most expensive painting of all time. So what exactly are the 10 most expensive works?

'Three Studies Of Lucian Freud' - Francis Bacon
This 1969 triptych was sold for £142.4 million in 2013. Elaine Wynn, co-founder of the Wynn Casino empire, was the one earning the right to hang them on her walls.

Read: Picasso, Vasarely and Ortega Paintings to be Showcased in Odesa

No. 5, 1948 - Jackson Pollock
The first but not last work from the famous splatter merchant on this list, the US billionaire Steven A. Cohen agreed to spend $140 million on this Pollock.

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Nu Couché - Amedeo Modigliani
Reclining Nude was completed by Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani in 1917. It was sold for $170 million in November 2015.

Version O - Pablo Picasso
From the Les Femmes d’Alger series (also known as Women of Algiers), Version O. fetched $179.4 million at Christie's New York two years ago.

Pendant Portraits of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit - Rembrandt
Going Dutch and getting a bit more classical, these portraits of married couple Oopjen Coppit and Marten Soolmans earned the Rothschild family €160 million. The Rijksmuseum and the Louvre split the cost.

No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red) - Mark Rothko
Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev spent $186 million on this abstract expressionist work, setting a record for a painting created in the US.

Number 17A - Jackson Pollock
Hedge fund billionaire Kenneth C Griffin was certainly in the mood for splashing the cash when he dropped $200 million on this 1948 abstract last year, as you'll see when the list reaches its conclusion.

The Card Players - Paul Cézanne
The first of five in a late-period series on working class pastimes by the French post-impressionist was painted in the 1890s and went for $259 million over a century later.

Nafea Faa Ipoipo? (or When Will You Marry?) - Paul Gauguin
This 1892 oil painting from the French post-impressionist artist changed hands privately in 2015 for roughly $300 million with the Qatar royal family confirmed as the proud owners.

Interchange – Willem de Kooning
Kenneth C Griffin snapped up this 1955 oil on canvas work for roughly $300 million in 2016 – and threw another $200 million at the David Geffen Foundation for Jackson Pollock's Number 17A while he was at it.