The ten highest prices ever paid for a painting at public auction, from Leonardo's record-shattering $450M "Salvator Mundi" on down.
Quick answer: 1. Salvator Mundi, 2. Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, 3. Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, 4. Number 7A, 1948, 5. Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O), 6. Nu couché, 7. Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), 8. Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version), 9. Three Studies of Lucian Freud, 10. Twelve Landscape Screens.
A handful of paintings have crossed the nine-figure line at the auctioneer's gavel, turning a single canvas into one of the largest publicly recorded transactions any object can command. This list ranks the ten most expensive, using the total price as sold — hammer price plus the house's buyer's premium — for works auctioned to the public. It's a snapshot of where the very top of the art market sits: old masters and modern giants, Christie's and Sotheby's in New York, a Beijing ink set, a 2025 Klimt that became the priciest modern work ever auctioned, and a 2026 Pollock drip painting that reset the American record. Private sales — some rumored to be even larger — are deliberately excluded, because their figures can't be verified.
At $450.3 million it remains the all-time auction record by a wide margin — more than $200 million clear of second place. Sold as a Leonardo, though its attribution to da Vinci is still disputed among scholars.
Sold in November 2025 from the Leonard Lauder collection, this $236.4 million result is the most expensive work of modern art and the second-priciest painting ever auctioned.
At $195 million it was the most expensive 20th-century artwork at the time and a record for any American artist. Sold from the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation.
A key early drip painting from the S. I. Newhouse collection that sold at Christie's in May 2026 for $181.2 million with fees, resetting the auction record for Jackson Pollock and for any work of American art.
From Picasso's 15-canvas series inspired by Delacroix, this $179.4 million sale held the record for any artwork at auction from 2015 until Salvator Mundi eclipsed it in 2017.
One of Modigliani's celebrated reclining nudes, sold on a guarantee at Christie's in November 2015 for $170.4 million.
A second Modigliani reclining nude, and at $157.2 million the highest price Sotheby's had ever achieved for any work at the time.
A pointillist masterwork that fetched $149.2 million as part of the Paul Allen collection — the highest-grossing single-owner sale in auction history.
A triptych of the painter's friend and rival that, at $142.4 million, was the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when the gavel fell in 2013.
A 12-panel ink set by the modern ink master and, at $140.8 million (RMB 931.5M), the most expensive Chinese artwork ever sold at auction.
| # | Name | Artist | Year created | Sale date | Auction house |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salvator Mundi | Leonardo da Vinci (attributed) | c. 1499–1510 | Nov 15, 2017 | Christie's, New York |
| 2 | Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer | Gustav Klimt | 1914–1916 | Nov 18, 2025 | Sotheby's, New York |
| 3 | Shot Sage Blue Marilyn | Andy Warhol | 1964 | May 9, 2022 | Christie's, New York |
| 4 | Number 7A, 1948 | Jackson Pollock | 1948 | May 18, 2026 | Christie's, New York |
| 5 | Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O) | Pablo Picasso | 1955 | May 11, 2015 | Christie's, New York |
| 6 | Nu couché | Amedeo Modigliani | 1917–1918 | Nov 9, 2015 | Christie's, New York |
| 7 | Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) | Amedeo Modigliani | 1917 | May 14, 2018 | Sotheby's, New York |
| 8 | Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version) | Georges Seurat | 1888 | Nov 9, 2022 | Christie's, New York |
| 9 | Three Studies of Lucian Freud | Francis Bacon | 1969 | Nov 12, 2013 | Christie's, New York |
| 10 | Twelve Landscape Screens | Qi Baishi | 1925 | Dec 17, 2017 | Poly Auction, Beijing |
Items are ranked by nominal auction sale price in US dollars — the final hammer price plus the buyer's premium, as sold — for paintings sold at public auction only. Private sales are excluded because their prices are not publicly verifiable. Figures are nominal (not inflation-adjusted) and reflect the currency conversion at the time of sale for lots sold outside the US (e.g., the Qi Baishi set, sold in RMB). Ranking is by dollar value, highest first. Data is drawn from Wikipedia's List of most expensive paintings and per-work articles, cross-checked against ARTnews and Visual Capitalist market reporting.
Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," which sold at Christie's New York on November 15, 2017 for $450,312,500 including the buyer's premium. It remains the all-time auction record by more than $200 million, though its attribution to Leonardo is disputed among scholars.
This list ranks public auction results only. Some paintings have reportedly sold for more in private deals — for example, several works are rumored to have changed hands privately above these figures — but private sale prices aren't publicly verifiable, so they're excluded here.
No. The figures are nominal — the actual dollar amount paid at the time of sale, including the buyer's premium. An inflation-adjusted ranking would reorder some of the older sales, but nominal price is the standard basis for auction records.
The hammer price is the winning bid; the sale price shown here adds the auction house's buyer's premium, a percentage fee on top. For "Salvator Mundi," the hammer was $400 million and the premium brought the total to $450.3 million — the figure that goes into the record books.