The Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold: Where Riches And Art Collide

What happens when the right mixture of paint, canvas, and taste comes together? For some artists, not much. But for a small collection of the most incredible pieces of art, the wealth stemming from their creations is unimaginable.

The most expensive paintings in the world bring together authentic pieces of history, combined with deep historical significance, and a splash of something special. That X factor might mean being lost for decades. Or for displaying something culturally forbidden.

Whatever the case, this list of the world’s most expensive paintings is sure to leave you wondering if you should have picked up the paintbrush more often. For investors, these valuable paintings are more than scribbles on canvas.

They’re deep testaments to the history, popularity, and condition of the pieces of art. Usually offering a glance into the fabled past ownership, challenging social hierarchies, or some other unique backstory, these paintings bring serious cash to the table. Enough to bankrupt some entire countries.

If it were to come up for auction, the Mona Lisa would likely fetch the highest price in history for a painting (even after its glass case was smothered with cake).

But since it’s nearly impossible to determine the value of museum pieces, this list only encompasses the most valuable paintings sold between private sellers, either at auction or in private deals.

You might also enjoy our guides to Banksy’s record-breaking auction sales and Basquiat’s most valuable canvases.

The 12 most expensive paintings to look out for

Below, the most expensive paintings in descending order of value. *Prices have been adjusted for inflation.

Salvator Mundi: $606.1 million

In 2005, a group of British dealers paid $10,000 for a canvas that had been missing for years, the work we now know as Leonardo da Vinci’s “Lost Leonardo,” Salvator Mundi. When it sold again in 2017, the price hit $450.3 million, about $606.1 million in today’s money, and set the record for the most ever paid for an artwork at auction.

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci Year of creation: 1500 Last sold: $450.3 million, 2017 Current value: $606.1 million

Interchange: $408.9 million

Willem de Kooning painted Interchange as a turn away from the women he had been painting and toward abstract urban landscapes. The 1955 canvas sold in 2015 for $300 million, about $408.9 million in today’s dollars. That puts it right below Salvator Mundi on this list.

Artist: Willem de Kooning Year of creation: 1955 Last sold: $300 million, 2015 Current value: $408.9 million

The Card Players 1892: $359 million

Five times, Paul Cézanne painted his card players. The fifth and final version, from 1892, sold in 2011 for $250 million, a record price at the time, equal to about $359 million today.

Artist: Paul Cézanne Year of creation: 1892 Last sold: $250 million, 2011 Current value: $359 million

Nafea Faa Ipoipo?: $286.5 million

Rudolf Staechelin, a Swiss collector, sold Nafea Faa Ipoipo? privately in September 2014 to a company acting for the Emir of Qatar. The title asks the question “When Will You Marry?” and Gauguin painted it just after his first trip to Tahiti, where he found a westernized culture rather than the untouched civilization he expected. For years the price was reported as $300 million. A 2017 lawsuit over a dealer’s commission, upheld on appeal in 2019, put the real figure on record at $210 million, about $286.5 million today.

Artist: Paul Gauguin Year of creation: 1892 Last sold: $210 million, 2014 Current value: $286.5 million

Number 17A: $272.6 million

The public ridiculed Jackson Pollock when he first unveiled his drip technique. A year later he painted Number 17A. It sold in 2015 as part of the same deal as Interchange for a reported $200 million, roughly $272.6 million in today’s money.

Artist: Jackson Pollock Year of creation: 1948 Last sold: $200 million, 2015 Current value: $272.6 million

Portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit: $245.3 million

Rembrandt was 28 when he painted this full-length pair of wedding portraits. Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit had just married, and the Rothschild family held the two canvases for years. In 2015, the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum bought them jointly for $180 million, about $245.3 million today.

Artist: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn Year of creation: 1634 Last sold: $180 million, 2015 Current value: $245.3 million

Les Femmes d’Alger (Version “O”): $244.4 million

Picasso painted the women of Algiers fifteen times, and Version “O” is the last and most acclaimed of the set. When that finale sold in 2015, the price reached $179.3 million, near $244.4 million in today’s dollars.

Artist: Pablo Picasso Year of creation: 1955 Last sold: $179.3 million, 2015 Current value: $244.4 million

Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer: $236.4 million

Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer pictures the young Viennese heiress in a robe inspired by East Asian dress. Her family numbered among Klimt’s most important patrons and once owned more of his work than any other collector. The Nazis seized the portrait, restituted it to her brother Erich in 1948, and it later passed through the estate of Leonard Lauder. On November 18, 2025, Sotheby’s New York sold it for $236.4 million after a 20-minute bidding war between six bidders, the highest price ever for a work of modern art at auction and second only to Salvator Mundi among all artworks.

Artist: Gustav Klimt Year of creation: 1914-1916 Last sold: $236.4 million, 2025 Current value: $236.4 million

Water Serpents II: $231.7 million

For more than a century, nobody has agreed on what Water Serpents II actually shows: four mythical creatures or four women. The Nazis confiscated it during World War II. It sold in 2013 for $183.3 million in a sale where the seller did not disclose a conflict of interest, then again in 2015 for $170 million, about $231.7 million in today’s money.

Artist: Gustav Klimt Years of creation: 1904 to 1907 Last sold: $170 million, 2015 Current value: $231.7 million

No. 5, 1948: $224.3 million

Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948 first changed hands for $1,500. In 2006, the same drip painting sold for $140 million. That made it the most expensive painting ever sold at the time. Today that $140 million comes to about $224.3 million.

Artist: Jackson Pollock Year of creation: 1948 Last sold: $140 million, 2006 Current value: $224.3 million

The Standard Bearer: $218.6 million

Rembrandt painted The Standard Bearer as a self-portrait while moving from Leiden to Amsterdam, and some see it as a pitch for a militia group’s commission. Whatever the intent, the Rothschild family sold it in early 2022 to a joint venture of the Dutch government, the Rembrandt Association, and the Rijksmuseum for €175 million, about $198 million at the time and $218.6 million today. Not even the world’s most expensive nickel comes close to paying this bill.

Artist: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn Year of creation: 1636 Last sold: €175 million ($198 million), 2022 Current value: $218.6 million

No. 6 (Violet, Green, and Red): $200.1 million

Mark Rothko’s No. 6 is central to the Bouvier Affair. Dealer Yves Bouvier bought it for around $80 million, then sold it to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2014 for $186 million without disclosing his own purchase price, a markup the buyer later sued over. Hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin bought the Color Field work in a private sale through Christie’s in 2024 for $195 million, about $200.1 million in today’s dollars.

Artist: Mark Rothko Year of creation: 1951 Last sold: $195 million, 2024 Current value: $200.1 million

Why a $10,000 canvas became a $450 million one

The gap between Salvator Mundi’s first modern sale and its record: British dealers paid $10,000 in 2005; twelve years later, the same painting brought $450.3 million. Two of Gustav Klimt’s entries on this list, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer and Water Serpents II, were seized by the Nazis during World War II. The Lederer portrait sold for $236.4 million in 2025, and Water Serpents II sold for $170 million in 2015.

The houses that sell these canvases sell more than canvases. Christie’s took $14,550,000 for David Gilmour’s Black Strat in March 2026, the most ever paid for a guitar. Our ranking of the most expensive guitars shows how far one owner’s history can carry an ordinary factory instrument.

Records reach the same rooms. Bob Dylan re-cut “Blowin’ in the Wind” as a single unique disc in 2021 and Christie’s sold it for $1,769,508 the following year. Our guide to the most valuable vinyl records ranks that market by realised price.

The Klimt sale is less than a year old as we write this.

If you enjoy watching ordinary objects turn out to hold fortunes, our guides to the most expensive Bearbricks, the most valuable Beanie Babies, and the most expensive cars play the same game.

For now, the 12 most expensive paintings are:

1. Salvator Mundi, $450.3 million, 2017
2. Interchange, $300 million, 2015
3. The Card Players 1892, $250 million, 2011
4. Nafea Faa Ipoipo?, $210 million, 2014
5. Number 17A, $200 million, 2015
6. Portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, $180 million, 2015
7. Les Femmes d’Alger (Version “O”), $179.3 million, 2015
8. Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, $236.4 million, 2025
9. Water Serpents II, $170 million, 2015
10. No. 5, 1948, $140 million, 2006
11. The Standard Bearer, €175 million ($198 million), 2022
12. No. 6 (Violet, Green, and Red), $195 million, 2024