List of most expensive artworks by living artists
The highest known price paid for an artwork by a living artist was for Jasper Johns's 1958 painting Flag. Its 2010 private sale price was estimated to be about US$110 million ($119 million in 2021 dollars).[1]:{{{3}}}
All-time
This is a list of highest prices ever paid—at auction or private sale—for an artwork by an artist living at time of sale.
Adjusted price
(in millions of USD) |
Original price
(in millions of USD) |
Work | Artist | Date | Venue | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
119 | 110 | Flag | Jasper Johns | 2010 | Private sale | [1] |
91 | 91.1 | Rabbit | Jeff Koons | May 2019 | Christie's | [2][3] |
90 | 90.3 | Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) | David Hockney | November 2018 | Christie's | [4] |
94 | 80 | False Start | Jasper Johns | October 2006 | Private sale | [5] |
62 | 62 | The Journey of Humanity | Sacha Jafri | March 2021 | Humanity Inspired Royal Charity Auction, Dubai[note 1] | [6][7] |
59 | 58.4 | Balloon Dog (Orange) | Jeff Koons | November 2013 | Christie's | [8] |
Progressive auction sales records
This is a list of progressive records of the highest price ever paid at auction for the work of an artist who was living at time of sale. As a progressive record listing, it only lists auctions records that topple the previous best. The current record price is US$91 million for Jeff Koons's 1986 sculpture, Rabbit, set in 2019. The current record price for a painting is $90 million for David Hockney's 1972 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), set the prior year.
Adjusted price
(in millions of USD) |
Original price
(in millions of USD) |
Work | Artist | Date | Auction
house |
Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
91.82 | 91.1 | Rabbit | Jeff Koons | May 2019 | Christie's | [2][3] |
92.48 | 90.3 | Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) | David Hockney | November 2018 | Christie's | [4] |
64.68 | 58.4 | Balloon Dog (Orange) | Jeff Koons | November 2013 | Christie's | [8] |
41.11 | 37.1 | Domplatz, Mailand | Gerhard Richter | May 2013 | Sotheby's | [9] |
38.16 | 34.2 | Abstraktes Bild (809-4) (1994) | Gerhard Richter | October 2012 | Sotheby's | [10] |
40.03 | 33.6 | Benefits Supervisor Sleeping | Lucian Freud | May 2008 | Christie's | [11] |
28.98 | 23.6 | Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold) | Jeff Koons | November 2007 | Sotheby's | [12] |
23.91 | 19.3 | Lullaby Spring | Damien Hirst | June 2007 | Sotheby's | [13] |
36.48 | 17 | False Start | Jasper Johns | November 1988 | Sotheby's | [14] |
15.02 | 7 | White Flag | Jasper Johns | November 1988 | Christie's | [15] |
9.18 | 4.18 | Diver | Jasper Johns | May 1988 | Christie's | [16] |
8.28 | 3.63 (tied) | Pink Lady | Willem de Kooning | May 1987 | Sotheby's | [17] |
8.49 | 3.63 (tied) | Out the Window | Jasper Johns | November 1986 | Sotheby's | [18] |
3.23 | 1.2 | Two Women | Willem de Kooning | May 1982 | Christie's | [19] |
2.19 | 0.8 | L'Enigme du Desir/Ma Mere, Ma Mere, Ma Mere | Salvador Dalí | March 1982 | Christie's | [20] |
4.13 | 0.53 | Mother and Child | Pablo Picasso | April 1967 | Sotheby's | [21][22] |
1.88 | 0.22 | Death of Harlequin/Woman in a Garden | Pablo Picasso | 1962 | Sotheby's | [23][24] |
1.34 | 0.15 (tied) | La Belle Hollandaise | Pablo Picasso | May 1959 | Sotheby's | [25][26] |
1.34 | 0.15 (tied) | Mother and Child | Pablo Picasso | November 1958 | Sotheby's | [27] |
0.066 | Friedland, 1807 | Ernest Meissonier | March 1887 | Stewart estate sale | [28][29] | |
0.045 | Les Communiantes | Jules Breton | May 1886 | Mary J. Morgan estate sale | [30][31] |
Private sales
- Jasper Johns's 1958 Flag painting was sold by Steven A. Cohen to Jean-Christophe Castelli for ca $110 million in 2010 ($119 million in 2021 dollars).[1]
- Privately, Damien Hirst's For the Love of God (2007), composed of diamond and platinum, sold to a consortium including the artist in August 2007 for $100 million.($114 million in 2021 dollars) [13]:{{{3}}}
- Another Jasper Johns painting, False Start (1959), was sold by Kenneth C. Griffin to David Geffen on October 12, 2006, for a then record $80 million.($94 million in 2021 dollars)[32]
- The Whitney Museum of American Art privately[33] purchased Jasper Johns's Three Flags in 1980 for $1 million ($3 million in 2021 dollars), then a record price for a living artist.[34][35]
- In 1967, citizens of Basel, Switzerland, raised nearly $2 million to buy two Picasso paintings for their Kunstmuseum Basel.[36]
- In 1890, Alfred Chauchard , owner of the Grands Magasins du Louvre department store, purchased Ernest Meissonier's 1814 The Campaign of France from a banker for 850,000 Fr (US$162,000 in 1890; equivalent to $4 million in
- REDIRECT Template:Inflation/year
- This is a redirect from a page that has been moved (renamed). This page was kept as a redirect to avoid breaking links, both internal and external, that may have been made to the old page name. For more information follow the bold category link.), the highest price for a painting by an artist alive or dead.[37]
See also
- List of most expensive paintings
- List of most expensive sculptures
- List of most expensive photographs
- List of most expensive books and manuscripts
- List of most expensive non-fungible tokens
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ British artist sells world's largest painting The Journey of Humanity for $62m, The Guardian, March 22, 2021
- ↑ Sophie Prideaux, World's largest painting created in Dubai by Sacha Jafri sells for record-breaking $62 million, The National, March 23, 2021
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Auction Records Broken in London: A Picasso Sold for £55, 000." Illustrated London News, May 16, 1959, p. 835. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. "... at Sotheby's on May 6, an early Picasso nude... was sold ... for £55,000, the highest price ever paid in an auction room for the work of a living artist. Prior to this the record had been held by another Picasso, a Mother and Child, which was sold last November in New York for £54,000.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lettres, sciences, arts: Encyclopédie universelle du XXe siècle. 1908. 3: 85. "... les Communiantes (Salon de 1884): 227,500 fr. C'est l'enchère la plus considèrable qui ait été atteinte jusqu'alors par un tableau d'artiste vivant"
- ↑ Methodist Magazine. January 1901. p. 81: "For the painting of 'The First Communion,' by Breton, [Lord Strathcona] paid the sum of $45,000, the highest price, it is said, ever paid for a modern picture sold at auction."
- ↑ Carol Vogel, Works by Johns and de Kooning Sell for $143.5 Million, The New York Times, October 12, 2006
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ LIFE Dec 27, 1968, p. 120. "Picasso's top price—in fact, the top price in history for the work of a living artist—was set in Basel, Switzerland, where citizens raised $1,950,000 to buy Two Brothers, 1905, and Seated Harlequin, 1923, for their museum."
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The auction was organized in partnership with UNICEF, UNESCO, Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates, and the Global Gift Foundation.