Nothing can be compared to the magic that art creates and its capability to transport one into a whole new world! Well, maybe this is why the world’s best artwork is considered to be priceless; but hey, don’t forget that purchasing one can cost you an arm and a leg. That being said, there are certain high-priced artworks, which have been sold for hundreds of millions of pounds.
you can see most of them in you’re the worlds most prized museums and art galleries. Whilst many incredible artworks are held with private collectors whose details we’ll never know of, in this article we’ve mentioned the top 5 worldwide famous artwork ever bought and sold. Read along and get to know how incredibly amazing the artworks were and what makes them so damn expensive.
The Card Players’, Paul Cézanne – Sold for £263.1m
Produced by Cézanne in the early 90s’ – during the final period of French Post-Impressionism – the Card Player’s is one of the artworks from the sequence of 5 oil paintings. Similar to the record-breaking painting by Gauguin, even this artwork was bought by the State of Qatar in the year 2011. This oil-rich country has opened a chain of first-rate arty galleries and has been busier than ever in building a beautiful compilation of popular paintings all over the years.
No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollock – Sold for £164.4m
This artwork by Pollock is considered as the representation of the summit of Abstract Expressionism movement – beginning after the end of World War II – by almost every critic out there. In the year 2006, according to the New York Times, this artwork was sold by the organizer of Geffen Records, David Geffen, to the managing director of Fintech Advisory David Martinez. Nonetheless, later on during a press release Martinez refused to agree with it, which is why it’s still remains to be a mystery as to who actually purchased the artwork.
Woman III, Willem de Kooning – Sold for £162.2m
Woman III was created by a Dutch American painter, named Willem de Kooning, and this painting is amongst his 5 other artwork which was painted between 1951 and 1953. It is one of those artworks on this list which was yet again sold by David Geffen in the year 2006, proving that high-priced paintings are often exchanged between a specific number of people. That being said, Woman III was sold to Steven A. Cohen, a billionaire hedge fund manager – he is one person who has bought a lot of such paintings and you’re bound to read is name several times in such lists.
Le Rêve’, Pablo Picasso – Sold for £158.5m
Pablo Picasso being one of the most popular and sacred painter, how can we not mention his name in this list? La Rêve (translated as The Dream) is the most costly artwork of Pablo, representing his French mistress Marie-Therese Walter. Well, like the previous painting even this one has been bought by Steven A. Cohen, which was sold by Stephen A. Wynn, a casino owner, in the year 2013.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer’ I, Gustav Klimt – Sold for £158.4m
This painting by Gustav Klimt has such a gripping story behind it that it was made into a Hollywood movie, named Women in Gold and the lead star was none other than Helen Mirren. After the death of Adele’s husband, that artwork was given to the Austrian state as while making a Will she had instructed to do just that. However, because Austria was taken over by Germans in the year 1938, the painting was fled to Switzerland but sadly it was seized by the Nazis.
After around 60 years that is in 2006, Adele’s niece Maria Altmann finally got the ownership of the artwork. But later in the same year, it was sold to Ronald Lauder in New York.
Well, there we have it – the world’s most renowned paintings that are worth a king’s ransom in today’s time. In fact, in the last decade around 6 out of 10 high-priced artworks were purchased. Now, that shows how crazily in love art fanatics are to be ready to spend a fortune on such prized pieces of artwork!