5 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold

In early May, Edvard Munch's the Scream sold for an estimated US$120 million at auction. This qualified it as the most expensive painting ever sold. Despite tepid global economic markets over the past few years, the market for rare and exclusive art continues to be quite active. Here are some details on the most expensive paintings ever sold.

Estimates were for the Scream to go for as high as US$200 million, but the official sale price of $119,922,500 still easily qualified it for the highest ever. The auction took place in New York and was carried out by prestigious auction house Sotheby's. Edvard Munch painted the artwork in 1895 and it has since become one of the most widely recognized and reproduced paintings in history. The New York Times put its popularity nearly as high as Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, which is considered the most popular painting in the world. Four versions of the Scream exist, and the one that sold was said to be the last available in private hands. The other three are available for viewing in Norwegian museums. The winning bidder chose to remain anonymous and bid over the phone. The auction took only 12 minutes. The seller was a Norwegian businessman whose father knew Munch personally. 

This Pablo Picasso painting was the previous record holder for most-expensive painting, and was sold May 2010 in New York to an anonymous purchaser. The winning bidder paid US$106,482,500 and was speculated to have been a wealthy Russian business magnate. Picasso created the painting in 1932 and is said to have completed it in a single day while at the height of his career. It is reportedly a painting of one of his mistresses who also served as his muse. The seller was a wealthy family in Los Angeles that purchased it in 1952 for an estimated $17,000 from an art dealer who bought it directly from Picasso in 1936. Overall, it works out to quite a nice annual return over the past 50 years. 

Pablo Picasso also holds the record for the third most expensive painting. Boy with a Pipe was sold in May 2004 in New York. The credit crisis in between the sale of this painting and Nude, Green Leaves and Bust may have cooled the art market, but it looks to have come back strongly, as evidenced by the recent sale of The Scream. Boy with a Pipe was painted in 1905 when Picasso was only 24. It went for US$104.1 million and held the record for about six years.

Another Pablo Picasso painting, Dora Maar Au Chat was sold for US$95.2 million in May 2006 to qualify as the fourth most expensive painting ever to be sold. Picasso painted it in 1941 and it went to an anonymous purchaser. The painting had been on display for some time in Chicago before being purchased at Christie's auction house six years ago.  

This painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold in November 2006 for US$87.9 million. It was painted in 1907. His most famous work is The Kiss, which was painted a year later in 1908 and is on display in Vienna.

Prior to the sale of Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust painting, the previous record for art sold at auction was held by the sculpture Walking Man I by Alberto Giacometti. The sale price was US$104.3 million. These days, $100 million for an extremely rare piece of art is becoming the norm. The next record will have to surpass The Scream's $120 million, and someday a piece will surpass the $200 million threshold.