10 most expensive paintings

 The Card Players, Paul Cézanne, £158.4 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

 

 

Cézanne’s 1890s painting of two working-class men from his family’s estate was bought by the Qatari royal family for $250 million (£158.4 million) - more than double the previous auction record. Although the sale took place in 2011, the details of the  secret deal only emerged in February 2012. The painting had previously belonged to Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos and the four other Cézanne paintings in the post-Impressionist series are held by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Courtauld Institute in London and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
Picture: Handout

Three Studies of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, £89.3 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

The Francis Bacon triptych of his friend and rival artist Lucian Freud became the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction in November 2013, fetching $142.4 million (almost £90 million) at Christie's in New York. 'Three Studies of Lucian Freud', which was painted in painted in 1969, was one of only two full-length triptychs Bacon ever painted of Freud.
Picture: EPA

No. 5, Jackson Pollock, £89 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

Another sale shrouded in secrecy, the purchase of Jackson Pollock’s 1948 painting No. 5 was brokered by Sotheby’s. David Martinez reportedly bought the 8’ x 4’ piece of fibreboard, covered in drips of brown and yellow paint from Dreamworks co-founder David Geffen for $140 million, or £89 million, in November 2006. The New York Times reported the sale, but Martinez’s law firm later issued a statement saying he did not own it. The above image is of Pollock’s No. 4 painting, which sold in Sotheby’s for £25 million.
Picture: Getty Images

Woman III, Willem de Kooning, £87.4 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

 

 

Just days after the reported sale of Pollock’s No. 5 in 2006, David Geffen sold Willem de Kooning’s Woman III to American billionaire Steven Cohen for $137.5 million (£87.4 million). The portrait, created in 1953, is the only one of the artist’s six-painting ‘Women’ series in private hands.
Picture: AFP

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt, £85.7 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

 

Cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder broke the record for the highest sum ever paid for a painting in July 2006 when he paid $135 million (£85.7 million) for Gustav Klimt’s 1907 work, Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer 1. Again, this is a price gauged by experts close to the deal, as Mr Lauder was forbidden from revealing the price, which was negotiated by Christie’s.

 

 

 

 

The Scream, Edvard Munch, £76.3 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

 

   Edvard Munch’s expressionist masterpiece was bought by an anonymous buyer for $120 million (£76.3 million) at Sotheby’s New York in 2012. The painting’s previous owner was businessman Petter Olsen, who acquired it as his father was a friend of Munch’s. Bidding lasted just 12 minutes and the work had a starting price of $40 million.

 

 

 

 

Garcon à la Pipe, Pablo Picasso, £66.1 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

 

 

Picasso’s charming portrait was at the centre of a telephone bidding war at Sotheby’s in 2004, and was finally sold for $104.1 million. The painting was sold by the collectors and gallerists John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney. The influence of this pair in the art world is thought to have boosted the price of the painting.

Portrait of Dr Gachet, Vincent van Gogh, £52.4 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

Van Gogh’s portrait of the medic who cared for him in the final months of his life broke records when it was sold in 1990 for $82.5 million. The portrait was bought by a Tokyo art dealer on behalf of Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito. However, when Saito died in debt, the painting disappeared into the international art market and its whereabouts remain unknown.

Diana and Actaeon, Titian, £50 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

 

This painting by Renaissance master Titian is one in a series of seven famous “poesies” canvasses by the painter. Now in the joint possession of the National Gallery in London and the National Galleries of Scotland, the previous owner the Duke of Sutherland claimed he didn’t do too well out of the £50 million deal. The Duke will avoid inheritance tax and capital gains tax by selling the paintings to public collections, however he was reported saying  he could have made more money by selling them in the open market.

 

 

 

 

Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, £49.6 million - The most expensive artworks in pictures

 

 

Sold in 1990, Renoir’s depiction of Sunday afternoon jollity in Paris’s Montmartre reached $78.1 million at an auction held at Sotheby’s. As the painting was also bought by the controversial Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito, its whereabouts are also unknown after Saito’s death. It is thought to be in the hands of a Swiss collector.