thumb|[[Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)|Salvator Mundi attributed to Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci ( 1500)]]
This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The record payment for a work is approximately US$450.3 million (which includes commission) for the work Salvator Mundi () generally considered to be by Leonardo da Vinci, though this is disputed. The painting was sold in November 2017, through the auction house Christie's in New York City.
Background
The most famous paintings, especially old master works created before 1803, are generally owned or held by museums for viewing by patrons. Since museums rarely sell them, they are considered priceless. Guinness World Records lists Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa as having the highest insurance value for a painting. On permanent display at the Louvre in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on 14 December 1962. The sale of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers was the first time a "modern" (in this case 1888) painting became the record holder. Old master paintings had previously dominated the market. thumb|[[The Red Vineyard (1888), the only painting the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh sold during his lifetime, which is documented. It was sold for 400 francs (US$2,100 in 2025).]]
The list is incomplete with respect to sales between private parties, as these are not always reported and, even if they are, details like the purchase price may remain secret. For example, on June 25, 2019, the American hedge fund manager J. Tomilson Hill bought a recently rediscovered Judith and Holofernes (1607) attributed to Caravaggio, two days before it would have been auctioned in Toulouse. the painting was estimated to sell for $110 to $170 million. The actual purchase price was not disclosed, because of a confidentiality agreement attached to the private sale. Another example is a 2019 sale of The Seated Zouave by Vincent van Gogh. According to some sources, the painting had been sold by Argentine art collector Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier for $300 million, but the price was not confirmed by any of the parties involved.
Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol are the best-represented artists in the list. Whereas Picasso and Warhol became wealthy men, van Gogh is known to have sold only one painting in his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, for (approximately $2,000 in 2018 dollars) in 1890, to the Belgian impressionist painter and heiress Anna Boch.
Georgia O'Keeffe holds the record for the highest price paid for a painting by a woman. On November 20, 2014 at Sotheby's, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art bought her 1932 painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 for US $44.4 million (equivalent to US$ million in ).
Among the listed top paintings, only seven are by non-Western artists. Five are traditional Chinese paintings by Qi Baishi, Wu Bin, Wang Meng and Xu Yang. In particular, Qi Baishi's Twelve Landscape Screens was sold for $140.8 million in 2017. The only non-Western modern artwork listed is that of the Chinese-French painter Zao Wouki's oil painting Juin-Octobre 1985, which was sold for $65 million in 2018. Also included in this list is Chinese painter Wang Shaofei's The High Sun, which was sold at an estimated price of $74 million in 2017.
List of highest prices paid <!-- at auctions or private sales (inflation adjusted) -->
This list is ordered by consumer price index inflation-adjusted value (in bold) in millions of United States dollars in . Where necessary, the price is first converted to dollars using the exchange rate at the time the painting was sold. The inflation adjustment may change as recent inflation rates are often revised. A list in another currency may be in a slightly different order due to exchange-rate fluctuations. Paintings are listed only once, i.e., for the highest price sold.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! data-sort-type="currency" | Adjusted<br>(million<br>USD)
! data-sort-type="currency" | Original<br>(million<br> USD)
!Name
!class=unsortable|Image
!Artist
!Year
!Date of sale
!Rank<br />at sale<!--Only included when the sale was in the top 12 at the time. Note that earlier sales of paintings now higher in the list affect this ranking, like Adele Bloch-Bauer II in November 2006 (then 10th) and Le Rêve in 1997 and 2001 (both 11th).-->
!Seller
!Buyer
!Auction house
|-
! $
| data-sort-value="$450.3"|$450.3 <!-- $ 450,312,500 -->
|Salvator Mundi
|95px
|<br>(attribution disputed)
|data-sort-value=1500|
|
|1
|Dmitry Rybolovlev
|Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud
|Christie's, New York
|-
! data-sort-value="$"|~$
| data-sort-value="$300"|~$300
| Interchange
| 95px
|
| 1955
| <!--went on display in Griffin supported museum in September; sale was perhaps in August -->
| 1
| David Geffen Foundation
| Kenneth C. Griffin
| Private sale
|-
! $ +
| $250 +
| The Card Players
| 95px
|
| 1892/93
|
| 1
| George Embiricos
| State of Qatar
| Private sale
|-
! $
| data-sort-value="$210"|$210
| Nafea Faa Ipoipo<br/>(When Will You Marry?)
| 95px
|
| 1892
|
| 2
| Rudolf Staechelin heirs
| State of Qatar
| Private sale
|-
! data-sort-value="$"|~$
| data-sort-value="$200"|~$200
| Number 17A
| <!-- Please don't insert a picture here; artist died less than 70 years ago and work postdates 1923 (see WP:NFC and specifically WP:NFLISTS) -->
|
| 1948
| <!--went on display in Griffin supported museum in September; sale was perhaps in August -->
| 4
| David Geffen Foundation
| Kenneth C. Griffin
| Private sale
|-
! $
| $186<br/>(€140)<!-- $186 million as used in the news, which would be an exchange rate of $1.3286 per Euro-->
| No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)
| <!-- Please don't insert a picture here; artist died less than 70 years ago and work postdates 1923 (see WP:NFC and specifically WP:NFLISTS) -->
|
| 1951
|
| 3
| Cherise Moueix
| Dmitry Rybolovlev
| Private sale via<br/>Yves Bouvier
|-
! $
| $180<br/>(€160 million)<!--With exchange rate 1€ = $1.125. Forthcoming sale announced 21 September and official permission by Dutch senate October 6 (1€ ~ $1.125 both times); the sale must have been later though (rate was ~1.135 the next two weeks, which would be $181.6M) -->
| Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit
| 95px
|
| 1634
|
| 7
| Éric de Rothschild
| Rijksmuseum<br/>and Louvre
| Private sale<br/>
|-
! $
| $179.4 <!-- $179,365,000 -->
| Les Femmes d'Alger<br/>("Version O")
| <!-- Please don't insert a picture here; artist died less than 70 years ago and work postdates 1923 (see WP:NFC and specifically WP:NFLISTS)95px -->
|
| 1955
|
| 5
| Private collection
| Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani
| Christie's, New York
|-
! $
| $236.4
| Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer
| 95px
|
| 1914-1916
|
| 10
| Estate of Leonard Lauder
|
| Sotheby's, New York
|-
! $
| $198<br/>(€175)<!-- $198 million as used in the news-->
| The Standard Bearer
| 95px
|
| 1636
|
| 10
| Rothschild family
| Rijksmuseum
| Private sale
|-
! $
| $170.4 <!-- $170,405,000 -->
| Nu couché
| 95px
|
| 1917/18
|
| 9
| Laura Mattioli Rossi
| Liu Yiqian
| Christie's, New York
|-
! $
| $140
| No. 5, 1948
| <!-- Please don't insert a picture here; artist died less than 70 years ago and work postdates 1923 (see WP:NFC and specifically WP:NFLISTS) -->
|
| 1948
|
| 1
| David Geffen
|David Martinez<!-- David Martinez has been suggested, but evidence is against it: edit: I helped hang the painting in his apartment in the Time Warner Building (NYC) in 2009/2010 with a large team. This is fairly public information, and I assume that no harm is done in confirming the matter despite Shearman & Sterling LLP's press release. ) -->
| Private sale via Sotheby's
|-
! $
| $137.5
| Woman III
| <!-- Please don't insert a picture here; artist died less than 70 years ago and work postdates 1923 (see WP:NFC and specifically WP:NFLISTS) -->
|
| 1953
|
| 2
| David Geffen
| Steven A. Cohen
| Private sale via Larry Gagosian
|-
! $
| $165.0
| Masterpiece
| <!-- Please don't insert a picture here; artist died less than 70 years ago and work postdates 1923 (see WP:NFC and specifically WP:NFLISTS) -->
|
| 1962
|
| 12
| Agnes Gund
| Steven A. Cohen
| Private sale
|-
! $
| $135
| Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
| 95px
|
| 1907
|
| 1
| Maria Altmann
| Ronald Lauder, Neue Galerie
| Private sale via Christie's
|-
! $
| $195
| Shot Sage Blue Marilyn
|
|
| 1964
|
| 11
| Thomas and Doris Ammann
| Larry Gagosian
| Christie's, New York
|-
! $
| $155
| Le Rêve
|
|
| 1932
|
| 6
| Steve Wynn
| Steven A. Cohen
| Private sale
|-
! $
| $82.5
| Portrait of Dr. Gachet
| 95px
|
| 1890
|
| 1
| Siegfried Kramarsky heirs
| Ryoei Saito
| Christie's, New York
|-
! $
| $157.2 <!-- $157,159,000 -->
| Nu couché (sur le côté gauche)
| 95px
|
| 1917
|
| data-sort-value=13| <!-- 16 -->
|Ezra and David Nahmad
|
| Sotheby's, New York
|-
! $
| $150
| Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II
| 85px|center
|
| 1912
|
| 10 <!--at sale in 2006; 15 in in 2016-->
| Oprah Winfrey
| Unidentified buyer in China
| Private sale via Larry Gagosian
|-
! $
| $142.4 <!--$142,405,000-->
| Three Studies of Lucian Freud
| <!-- Please don't insert a picture here; artist died less than 70 years ago and work postdates 1923 (see WP:NFC and specifically WP:NFLISTS) -->
|
| 1969
|
| 8
|
| Elaine Wynn, ex-wife of Steve Wynn
| Christie's, New York
|-
! $
| $78.1
| Bal du moulin de la Galette<br/>
|95px
|
| 1876
|
| 2
| Betsey Whitney
| Ryoei Saito