20 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold

Hundreds of thousands even millions of dollars are spent every year by art patrons eager to own the world’s most sought-after paintings.Find out a little more about this shortlist of Picasso’s, Van Gogh’s and more works from famous artists who still command the highest prices.

Pablo Picasso – Femme aux Bras Croisés (Woman with Folded Arms), 1902
Sold for $55 million in 2000


Vincent van Gogh – A Wheatfield with Cypresses, 1889
Sold for $57 million in 1993


Kazimir Malevich – Suprematist Composition, 1916
Sold for $60 million in 2008


Paul Cézanne – Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier, 1894
Sold for $60.5 million in 1999


Willem de Kooning – Police Gazette, 1955
Sold for $63.5 in 2006


Vincent van Gogh – Portrait de l’Artiste Sans Barbe (Self-portrait without beard), 1889
Sold for $71.5 million in 1998


Andy Warhol – Green Car Crash, 1963
Sold for $71.7 million in 2007


Mark Rothko –White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950
Sold for $72.8 million in 2007


Peter Paul Rubens – Massacre of the Innocents, 1611
Sold for $76.7 million in 2002


Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre (Dance at Le moulin de la Galette), 1876
Sold for $78.1 million in 1990


Jasper Johns – False Start, 1959
Sold for $80 million in 2006


Claude Monet – Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas (Water Lily Pond), 1919
Sold for $80.5 million in 2008


Vincent van Gogh – Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890
Sold for $82.5 million in 1990


Francis Bacon – Triptych, 1976
Sold for $86.3 million in 2008


Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912
Sold for $87.9 million in 2006


Pablo Picasso – Dora Maar au Chat (Dora Maar with Cat), 1941
Sold for $95.2 in 2006


Pablo Picasso – Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe), 1905
Sold for $104.2 million in 2004


Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907
Sold for $135 million in 2006


Willem de Kooning – Woman III, 1953
Sold for $137.5 million in 2006


Jackson Pollock – No. 5, 1948
Sold for $140 million in 2006