�鶹ԭ��

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci

Cost: $450,312,500

Dated around 1500, Leonardo da Vinci's “Salvator Mundi“ painting depicts Jesus Christ as the "savior of the world" and is one of fewer than 20 paintings by the famed artist still in existence. It sold for in November 2017 to an , later revealed to be a Saudi prince, making it the world's most expensive painting.

Artist: Jackson Pollock

Cost: $140 million

Before there was “Salvator Mundi,“ there was "No. 5, 1948," the Jackson Pollock masterpiece that became the most expensive painting in the world when it sold in a private transaction for around $140 million in 2006, according to a. According to the Times, the painting was purchased by an “obsessively private“ buyer and Mexican financier named David Martinez. A Sotheby's agent reportedly brokered the private deal.

Artist: Gustav Klimt

Cost: $150 million

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey was the seller behind 2016's priciest art transaction. That year,  for about 71% more than the $87.9 million she paid for it in 2006. The work, which was at one point looted by the Nazis, is now the property of an unidentified Chinese buyer.

Artist: Roy Lichtenstein

Cost: $165 million

In 2017,  that art collector and activist Agnes Gund sold Roy Lichtenstein's comic book-inspired “Masterpiece“ for $165 million to billionaire hedge fund investor Steven Cohen. Gund reportedly used the windfall to start a criminal justice reform fund.

Artist: Mark Rothko

Cost: $186 million

The world got a glimpse into the high-stakes, high-pressure, and often shady world of the international fine art trade when  on the $186 million private sale of Mark Rothko's "No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)." The transaction followed a clandestine meeting between a Swiss art dealer and a Russian billionaire. It was just one meeting of many in "a freewheeling market in private sales where collectors trade masterpieces like chips in a casino."

Artist: Paul Gauguin

Cost: $300 million

In 2015, of a highly secretive, $300 million private sale. The work in question: an 1892 oil painting by Paul Gauguin of two Tahitian girls entitled “Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)" The painting was likely purchased by a well-heeled buyer from the small, oil-rich emirate of Qatar from a retired Sotheby's executive living in Switzerland.

Artist: Willem de Kooning

Cost: $137.5 million

Long before he scooped up "Masterpiece," hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen established himself as one of the world's premier contemporary art collectors with his 2006 purchase of Willem de Kooning's "Woman III." The  of the $137.5 million private transaction between Cohen and David Geffen, an entertainment mogul and renowned art collector.

Artist: Alberto Giacometti

Cost: $104.3 million

In 2010, Alberto Giacometti's  broke what was then the record for a sculpture—or any work of art—sold at auction. It from an anonymous buyer after just eight minutes of intense bidding.

Artist: Alberto Giacometti

Cost: $50,005,000

Another famed Alberto Giacometti sculpture is  which sold for more than $50 million at Sotheby's New York in 2013. The bronze bust was  by New York art dealer Bill Acquavella.

Artist: Andreas Gursky

Cost: $4,338,500

Seven-figure price tags are almost unheard of for photographs, unless they're taken by the famed photographer Andreas Gursky.  when it fetched more than $4.3 million at auction at Christie's in New York.

Artist: Amedeo Modigliani

Cost: $157.159 million

When Amedeo Modigliani revealed "Nu Couché (Sur le Côté Gauche)" in 1917, the  A little more than a century later, it was expensive. The piece became  when it fetched more than $157 million at Sotheby's New York, but even still, it is not the artist's most expensive work.

Artist: Amedeo Modigliani

Cost: $170.4 million

The highest price tag for a Modigliani rests on  which sold for more than $170 million at Christie's New York in 2015. The that the masterpiece—another once-controversial nude—was purchased by Liu Yiqian, a billionaire who was once a taxi driver, after a six-way showdown of intense bidding.

Artist: Rembrandt

Cost: $180.6 million

, the Dutch government was so intent on bringing “Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit" back home in 2015 that the country itself put up half the money needed to buy the painting. The painting by famed Dutch master Rembrandt was previously owned by renowned French businessman Éric de Rothschild.

Artist: Richard Prince

Cost: $3,973,000

which sold at Christie's New York for nearly $4 million in 2014, may be the most controversial multi-million work of art in circulation. Since his style is to take pictures of existing photographs, Richard Prince's work is already a hot topic of contention in the art world. , however, tops the debate. The image portrays a sexualized then-10-year-old Brooke Shields, a photo her mother sold to Prince for $450 in 1975, then sued him to stop using in 1981.

Artist: Gustav Klimt

Cost: $183 million

The Gustav Klimt masterpiece "Water Serpent II" is at the heart of a multi-billion scandal that has been rocking the art world since 2012. The was just one of 38 pieces possibly totaling more than $2 billion dollars bought by a single Russian oligarch from a Swiss art entrepreneur. Through a series of international lawsuits and accusations,  the Swiss dealer pretended to be brokering deals for commission, but was actually buying the paintings himself, then flipping them for 10-figure profits—all with the help of famed auction house Sotheby's.  

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Cost: $104 million

Pablo Picasso's "Boy With a Pipe" and founded the nine-figure club when it sold for $104 million at Sotheby's New York in 2004. The sale soared past the $70 million the painting was expected to fetch. It also crushed the previous record for most expensive work of art sold at auction, which was Vincent van Gogh's “Portrait of Dr. Gachet,“ which sold for $85 million in 1990.

Artist: Edvard Munch

Cost: $119,922,500

One of the most recognizable and celebrated paintings in history,  sold for just shy of $120 million at Sotheby's New York in 2012. A representation of what Sotheby's calls  the Edvard Munch masterpiece inspired the founding of the Expressionist art movement.  

Artist: Jasper Johns

Cost: $87 million

Jasper Johns “created  in various media." There is, however, only one true “Flag.“ The work, which Johns exhibited at his first one-man show in 1958, was for $87 million in 2014.

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Cost: $85 million

Few artists are more celebrated than Vincent van Gogh, and few van Goghs are more sought-after than  When it sold at Christie's New York for $85 million in 1990, it  of $53.9 million set in 1987 by “Irises,“ also by van Gogh.

Artist: Paul Cézanne

Cost: $250 million

Small in size but huge in terms of wealth, the small oil-rich emirate of Qatar is flush with cash and hungry for art. In 2012, the nation's government boosted  an "effort to become an international intellectual hub" when it purchased "The Card Players" by Paul Cézanne for $250 million. It was the highest price ever paid for any work of art at the time.

Artist: Willem de Kooning

Cost: $300 million

In 2016, billionaire Chicago  on art. He coughed up the lion's share, $300 million, on "Interchange," a 1955 painting by famed artist Willem de Kooning. Griffin wasn't done yet, however.

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Cost: $200 million

With $200 million left in his budget, Ken Griffin was also able to add a Picasso to his world-renowned collection. The CEO and founder of Citadel 

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Cost: $179.4 million

In 2015, you could still break the art auction world record for less than $180 million. Those days are gone, but that's exactly what happened when  sold at Christie's New York for , “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,“ which fetched $142.4 million two years before.

Artist: Francis Bacon

Cost: $142,405,00

With a single work of art now commanding upwards of half a billion dollars, it was only 2013 when the world of "reasonably priced" fine art was still a reality. That year,  by Francis Bacon became  when the hammer dropped that evening at Christie’s New York.