Money and culturePrice (at the time of sale)
Most expensive painting ever sold
$450,300,000
- Record holder
- Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci (attribution disputed)
How the record evolved
The last record set in each decade, up to the current record (highlighted).
| Year | Record | Holder |
|---|---|---|
| current | $450,300,000 | Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci (attribution disputed) |
| $250,000,000 | The Card Players, Paul Cézanne | |
| $140,000,000 | No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollock | |
| $82,500,000 | Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent van Gogh | |
| $58,000,000 | Portrait of Joseph Roulin, Vincent van Gogh | |
| $5,500,000 | Portrait of Juan de Pareja, Diego Velázquez | |
| $2,300,000 | Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer, Rembrandt | |
| $2,000,000 | Study of a Young Woman, Johannes Vermeer | |
| $1,600,000 | Benois Madonna, Leonardo da Vinci | |
| $510,000 | Portrait of Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo, Anthony van Dyck | |
| $350,000 | Ansidei Madonna, Raphael | |
| $120,000 | The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo | |
| $80,000 | Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Hubert and Jan van Eyck | |
| $40,000 | Sistine Madonna, Raphael | |
| $30,000 | Magdalen in the Desert, Antonio da Correggio |
Put them in order
Sort these records from the oldest to the most recent.
- $30,000Magdalen in the Desert, Antonio da Correggio
- $450,300,000Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci (attribution disputed)
- $510,000Portrait of Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo, Anthony van Dyck
- $5,500,000Portrait of Juan de Pareja, Diego Velázquez
What to remember
Christie's, New York, November 2017: a Christ as Savior of the World, dated c. 1500 and attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, sold for $450,300,000 including commission. The seller was Dmitry Rybolovlev. No painting has fetched more, and adjusted for inflation the price comes to $591.5 million.
The attribution is disputed. Christie's stated that most leading scholars consider it an original by Leonardo, while some specialists think he only painted certain parts, and others believe the heavy restoration makes a firm attribution impossible. Long taken for a copy of a lost original hidden under overpainting, it was rediscovered, restored and included in an exhibition of Leonardo's work at the National Gallery in London in 2011 and 2012.
In 1746, Correggio's Magdalen in the Desert reached $30,000. In 1914 another Leonardo, the Benois Madonna, led with $1,600,000; in 1990 Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet went to $82,500,000, and in 2011 Cézanne's The Card Players to $250,000,000. From 1746 to Salvator Mundi, the ratio is 15,010.
Related records
Sources and licences
- Value, holder and date: Wikipedia article “List of most expensive paintings” (revision used 1379186488). Data from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo: Leonardo da Vinci, Photo licensed under Public domain (Wikimedia Commons).
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