10th place: Woman III by Willem de Kooning
Woman III is an abstract expressionist painting by the American painter Willem de Kooning, created in a series of six related portraits of women between 1951 and 1953. The format of the picture, completed in 1953, is 1.2 × 1.7 meters. In November 2006, Geffen sold the painting to hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen for $142.5 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a single painting.
9th place: La Montagne Sainte-Victoire by Paul Cézanne
The picture belongs to a series of oil paintings by the French artist Paul Cézanne from the years 1904-1906. The Montagne Sainte-Victoire is a limestone mountain range in southern Provence, stretching 18 kilometers east from near Aix en Provence. Cézanne, who could see the mountain range from his nearby studio on Les Lauves hill, north of Aix-en-Provence, painted it eighty-seven times. It was sold yesterday by Paul Allen’s heirs to an unknown buyer for $137.8 million.
8th place: No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock
No. 5, 1948 is a painting by American artist Jackson Pollock. The painting, which was on display at the Museum of Modern Art before David Geffen owned it, is now privately owned. According to a November 2, 2006 New York Times report, the painting was sold by its then-owner, David Geffen, to a Mexican man for $140 million in a private transaction.
7th place: Les Poseuses (small version) by Georges Seurat
“Les Poseuses, Ensemble (petite version)” is considered the pinnacle of Pointillism. It changed hands for $149 million – a new high for the artist. The image shows a nude model in three different poses.
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6th place: Three Studies of Lucian Freud (triptych) by Francis Bacon
The work by the Irish-British painter Bacon was created in 1969. It shows the German painter Lucian Freud. Bacon and Freud were close friends and regularly drew each other’s paintings. It was purchased by Elaine Wynn in 2013 for $142.4 million.
Places 5 and 4: Nu couché (small version) and Nu couché by Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian draftsman, painter and sculptor. Today’s notoriety is based primarily on his nude paintings. Nu couché means “The Lying Nude” in German. The painting shows a naked woman lying in an interior on a dark red sofa and a turquoise blue cushion. The picture was shown at the Paris gallery in 1917 along with other nudes. There was a crowd at the exhibition; the picture probably had a scandalous effect on gallery visitors at the time. On the same day, the police ordered the removal of the nude along with other other files. There are around 420 paintings by the artist, who died at the age of 35. The paintings sold for $157.2 and $170.4 million respectively.
3rd place: Les femmes d’Alger by Pablo Picasso
The “O” version from 1955 depicts a scene from a harem and shows four bare-breasted women, painted in bright colors in a mixture of abstract and realistic. It was created as a homage by Picasso to his colleague Henri Matisse, who died in November 1954. The buyer and new owner was allegedly the former prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, Hamad ibn Jasim ibn Jabr Al Thani. The price paid in 2015: $179.4 million.
2nd place: Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol
A portrait of actress Marilyn Monroe by US artist Andy Warhol was auctioned in New York for around 195 million dollars (approx. 185 million euros). The 1964 “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” based on a photograph, shows the actress in front of a turquoise-blue background with yellow hair, red lips and turquoise eyeshadow.
1st place: Salvator mundi by (probably) Leonardo da Vinci
The oil painting shows Christ as Savior of the world and is dated to around 1500. To this day it is not clear whether the picture was actually painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
In 2005 the work was acquired by the art dealer Robert Simon and other people who arranged for restoration and investigation. Various expert opinions came to the conclusion that it was an autograph work by Leonardo da Vinci. At the same time, there were different assessments, for example of a workshop work – and thus only a co-authorship of Leonardo – emanate. Regardless, the painting fetched record sums at subsequent auctions. Selling at $450.3 million at Christie’s in New York on November 15, 2017, it is currently the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. In 2019, the media reported that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had bought the picture at auction. However, this has not been officially confirmed to date. The painting has not been seen publicly since it was purchased.
Source: Nachrichten
