The 10 Most Expensive Pieces of Art sold at Auction

Ever wondered what the top 10 most expensive paintings ever sold at auction were? Have you ever wondered how much some paintings actually get sold for at auction?  Million and millions of pounds are spent year on year by the wealthy looking for a sought out piece of artwork. So what is the most expensive piece of art?   1. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt $135,000,000 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt (1907) This painting was sold to Ronald Lauder for his Neue Galere in New York City for $135 million in June 2006 at Christie’s, New York. The portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist is considered one of the artist’s masterpieces.  Did you know that Adele Bloch-Bauer became the only model who was painted twice by Klimt  see the other at the Klimt online gallery. 2. Garçon à la Pipe by Pablo Picasso ($104,100,000) Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe) is a painting by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1905 during Picasso’s famous Rose Period, a period in which Picasso preferred cheerful orange and pink colours.  On May 5, 2004 it sold for $104.1 million at Sotheby’s auction house in New York, after having been given a pre-sale estimate of $70 million by the auction house. The record price was a bit of a surprise since the painting is not made in the Cubist style that Picasso is so renowned for. Many art critics have stated that the painting’s high sale price has much more to do with the artist’s name than with the merit or historical importance of the painting.   3.Dora Maar au Chat by Pablo Picasso ($95,200,000) Dora Maar au Chat (Dora Maar with Cat) is a 1941 painting by Pablo Picasso. It depicts Dora Maar, the painter’s mistress, seated on a chair with a small cat perched on her shoulders. The work is painted in Picasso’s well-known cubist style. It was sold in an auction of impressionist works held at Sotheby’s on May 3, 2006 in New York to an anonymous bidder, whose final bid was $95.2 million, well exceeding the pre-auction $50 million estimates.   4. Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh ($82,500,000) This painting was sold to Japanese businessman Ryoei Sai for $82.5 million on May 15, 1990 at Christie’s, New York.  Ryoei Saito shocked the world when he announced that he wanted the van Gogh painting to be cremated with him at his death. Later he explained he was using a figure of speech: threatening to torch the oils was just an expression of intense affection for the masterpiece.  Vincent van Gogh actually painted two versions of Dr Gachet’s portrait with a slightly different color scheme. The other version is located at the Musée d’ Orsay in Paris.   5. Bal Au Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir ($78,000,000) Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre is an 1876 painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. There are two versions of this...

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