The Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold
The most expensive painting ever sold is Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which reached 450.3 million dollars at Christie's in 2017.
Here are the eleven highest prices ever paid for a single painting, at auction and in private deals, with the real story behind each number.
The short version
Salvator Mundi holds the record at 450.3 million dollars, set in 2017.
Some of the biggest sales were private, so the true top ten is not the auction top ten.
Qatar and a Saudi crown prince sit behind several of these paintings.
The record has more than doubled since 2010.
Prices below include the buyer's premium, the fee added on top of the hammer price.
If you want more of this kind of thing
Three that take a single painting apart, properly:
The Last Supper, detail by detail, the detail hiding at that table
Lady with an Ermine, detail by detail, why she is holding that animal
The Arnolfini Portrait, detail by detail, the mirror, the dog, and the question everyone asks
Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci: 450.3 million dollars
Sold at Christie's New York in November 2017.
In 2005 two dealers bought this panel for around 1,175 dollars. It was dirty, painted over, and filed under follower of Leonardo.
After a long cleaning, experts credited it to Leonardo himself. Twelve years later it sold for 450.3 million dollars after a nineteen minute bidding war.
The buyer turned out to be Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince. Then the painting vanished. A planned unveiling at the Louvre Abu Dhabi never happened, and it has not been shown in public since.
Scholars still argue over how much of it Leonardo actually touched.
Interchange, Willem de Kooning: around 300 million dollars
Private sale, 2015.
This is the most expensive painting most people have never heard of. The hedge fund founder Kenneth Griffin bought it privately, together with a Pollock, in a deal reported near 500 million dollars for the pair.
Griffin lent Interchange to the Art Institute of Chicago, so unlike Salvator Mundi you can actually stand in front of it.
The Card Players, Paul Cezanne: around 250 million dollars
Private sale, 2011.
Cezanne painted five versions of two peasants playing cards. The other four hang in museums, from the Musee d'Orsay to the Met.
This one, the last in private hands, went to the royal family of Qatar. For years it was called the most expensive painting in the world, until Salvator Mundi passed it.
Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, Gustav Klimt: 236.4 million dollars
Sold at Sotheby's New York in November 2025.
This full length portrait became the most expensive work of modern art ever sold at auction, and the second most expensive artwork of any kind. The Lederer family were among Klimt's greatest patrons.
The painting survived Nazi confiscation, was returned to the family in 1948, and later entered the collection of the cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder.
Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), Paul Gauguin: around 210 million dollars
Private sale, reported around 2014.
Gauguin painted these two Tahitian women in 1892, during his search for a paradise that colonial France had already changed for good.
The seller was a Swiss family and the buyer was again Qatar. For a while it was named the most expensive painting ever sold, until the figure was later revised down, closer to 210 million than the 300 first reported.
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, Andy Warhol: 195 million dollars
Sold at Christie's New York in May 2022.
The most expensive twentieth century artwork ever sold at auction, and the most expensive American painting.
The name is literal. In 1964 a woman named Dorothy Podber walked into Warhol's studio, asked if she could shoot his stack of Marilyn canvases, then pulled out a pistol and fired. The bullet passed through four of them. This is one of the survivors.
Number 7A, Jackson Pollock: 181.2 million dollars
Sold at Christie's New York in May 2026.
Pollock painted this eleven foot canvas in 1948, the year after he began flinging and dripping paint across the floor instead of brushing it on.
It had not been seen in public since 1977. Bidding opened at 80 million and, after sixty bids, hammered far past its estimate, a new record for the artist.
Women of Algiers (Version O), Pablo Picasso: 179.4 million dollars
Sold at Christie's New York in May 2015.
The final and richest canvas in a fifteen part series Picasso built from a Delacroix painting of the same name.
In 1997 it sold for 31.9 million. Eighteen years later it went for almost six times that, reportedly to the former prime minister of Qatar.
Nu couche, Amedeo Modigliani: 170.4 million dollars
Sold at Christie's New York in November 2015.
When Modigliani first showed his reclining nudes in Paris in 1917, the police shut the exhibition down after two days.
A century later one of them sold to the Chinese collector Liu Yiqian, who reportedly paid with an American Express card and kept the points.
The Scream, Edvard Munch: 119.9 million dollars
Sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2012.
Munch made four versions of The Scream. This pastel was the only one left in private hands, sold by the son of one of Munch's friends and patrons.
The bidding lasted twelve minutes. The buyer was the American investor Leon Black, who later lent it to the Museum of Modern Art.
Orchard with Cypresses, Vincent van Gogh: 117 million dollars
Sold at Christie's New York in November 2022.
Van Gogh painted these blossoming trees near his home in Arles in the spring of 1888, in thick oil paint laid on with obvious speed.
It sold as part of the collection of the Microsoft co founder Paul Allen, an evening that brought in 1.5 billion dollars, the largest single owner sale in history.
The questions people ask about record art prices
What is the most expensive painting ever sold? Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, at 450.3 million dollars in 2017.
What is the most expensive painting sold at public auction? Also Salvator Mundi. The larger sales above it were private deals, never at auction.
What is the most expensive painting by a living artist? David Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for 90.3 million dollars in 2018, a record for a living artist at the time.
Are these prices with fees? Yes. Each figure includes the buyer's premium added on top of the hammer price.
Where is Salvator Mundi now? Its location has not been confirmed since 2017. A planned show at the Louvre Abu Dhabi never took place.
The strangest part of the story
In 2005 Salvator Mundi changed hands for about 1,175 dollars.
Twelve years later it sold for 450.3 million, and no one is even sure where it hangs today. No painting in history has ever multiplied its price that fast.
If the money behind these great works pulls you in, keep reading: