On Nov. 15, Leonardo DaVinci’s "Salvator Mundi" sold for $450 million at Christie's, more than doubling the previous record for a bid at an art auction sale just two years earlier. (It even shattered the $300 million high-water mark for a private art sale.) “These auctions for the world's most desirable trophy art … are either a celebration of art appreciation or an alternative to big game hunting for city-dwelling billionaires,” is how noted art journalist Kathryn Tully once put it. Not long ago, gasps could be heard at auction houses when a piece went for $100 million.
Here’s a list of some of the most notable art auction sales in history, many of them record-holders in their day:
Dora Maar With Cat
Pablo Picasso, 1941
$95.2 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $117 million)
“A man appearing to be in his mid-40's, wearing a blue blazer and a cream-colored shirt, persistently waved paddle No. 1340 from far back in Sotheby's salesroom last night to spend $95.2 million on a Picasso portrait of his mistress Dora Maar.” That’s how the New York Times reported the second-highest price ever paid at the time for a work of art at auction in 2006.
Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe)
Pablo Picasso, 1905
$104.2 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $136 million)
On May 5, 2004, this Rose Period painting sold for $104.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York. "The price easily beats that of the previous all-time record setter, Van Gogh's 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet,' which sold at a Christie's auction for $82.5 million in 1990," CNN reported at the time. Some have speculated the anonymous buyer was billionaire Guido Barilla, chairman of the Barilla Group, the world's largest pasta company, but it has never been confirmed.
Walking Man I
Alberto Giacometti, 1961
$104.3 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $118 million)
The story goes like this: In 1966 Alberto Giacometti told his assistant, Jean Claude Farhi, to take home as a present a 6-foot Walking Man piece just finished. When Farhi arrived in his truck the next morning to load it up, he found out Giacometti had died that night, and was turned away by the sculptor’s widow. In 2010, that piece broke the world record price for a work of art at auction, selling to an unidentified telephone bidder for $104.3 million at Sotheby’s in London. It was purchased by Lily Safra, widow of Edmond Safra, a Syrian Brazilian Jewish billionaire banker.
Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)
Andy Warhol, 1963
$104.5 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $118 million)
Andy Warhol never made $1 million on the sale of any of his work during his lifetime. But this four double-panel silkscreen on canvas sold in 2013 was the highest price ever paid for a piece by the pop artist. The name of the winner was never disclosed.
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust
Pablo Picasso, 1932
$106.5 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $121 million.)
Not bad for a day’s work. In 1951, it sold for $19,800. But at a 2010 Christie’s auction it sold for $106.5 million. Thus, this painting that Picasso created in a single day in March 1932 became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction at that time. As was the case with Dora Maar With Cat, this Picasso was a portrait of one of his mistresses.
The Scream
Edvard Munch, 1895
$119.9 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $129 million)
“The Scream,” sometimes called the Mona Lisa of Modern Art, is a prominent painting, but not everyone knows that Munch made four versions. This was the only one held privately, and the only one in the United States, the New York Times reported at the time. In 2012, it became the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, passing the Picasso portrait “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust. The winning telephone bidder was anonymous, but it was soon discovered to be New York financier Leon Black.
L’homme au doigt (Pointing Man)
Alberto Giacometti, 1947
$141.3 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $147 million)
Less than 30 minutes after a Pablo Picasso’s painting sold for a record $179 million at a 2015 Christie’s New York auction, Giacometti’s gaunt bronze sculpture, “L’homme au doigt” sold for $141 million, an auction high for a sculpture, the New York Times reported. The high bidder was anonymous, but later was revealed to be hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen.
Three Studies of Lucian Freud
Francis Bacon, 1969
$142.4 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $151 million)
Elaine Wynn, the "Queen of Las Vegas” who co-founded Wynn Resorts with ex-husband Steve Wynn, quietly slipped into the Christie’s building in New York in November 2013 as Forbes reported it. It was just two days before the set of Bacon paintings was to be auctioned off. She cloaked herself in sweats and a baseball cap to discreetly inspect the masterpiece. “First I was worried I’d want to buy it,” Wynn told Forbes. “Then I was worried I might not get it.” She ended up spending $142 million, at the time the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction.
Nu Couché
Amedeo Modigliani, 1917-18
$170.4 Million
(Adjusted for inflation: $177 million)
"Modigliani nudes are regarded as among the ultimate trophy paintings of the 20th century," the New York Times reported at the time of the auction. It was the second-highest price paid for an artwork at auction at the time. The 2015 buyer was Liu Yiqian, a former taxi driver turned billionaire art collector.
Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)
Pablo Picasso, 1955
$179.4 million
(Adjusted for inflation: $187 million)
The 2015 Christie’s New York event seemed more a sporting event than art auction. The New York Times reported it thusly: “To a medley of whoops, hollers and gasps on Monday night, Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting 'Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)' sold for $179.4 million." The buyer was later identified as former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. When the painting appeared at auction in 1997, it sold for $31.9 million.
