The Top 10 Art Auction Sales Ever, Including Record $120 Million For Munch's ... - Forbes

A new art record was set on Wednesday when Edvard Munch's "The Scream" sold at Sotheby's New York for $119.9 million. It became the most expensive art work ever sold at auction, easily trouncing the reigning champ Pablo Picasso's "Nude Green Leaves and Bust," which sold at Christie's New York for $106.5 million in  2010. Only two other pieces, or four total, have ever sold for nine figures.  Alberto Giacometti's  "L'Homme qui marche I" was auctioned off shortly before the Picasso in 2010 for $104 million. The buyer was rumored to be Monaco billionaire Lily Safra but as is common in these situations, it has never been publicly confirmed. The fourth was yet another Picasso, "Garcon a la Pipe," which sold in 2004 for $104 million.

Indeed, of the top 10 ever sold at auction, three are Picassos, making him the only artist to be represented more than once in this elite group.  The third Picasso is owned by Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who picked up his "Dora Maar au chat" (1941) for $95.2 million at Sotheby's New York in 2006. Three other pieces among the top 10 are paintings by Impressionist impresarios, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh. The most contemporary piece of art among the 10 is Francis Bacon's 'Triptych' from 1976; it sold, reportedly to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, for $86.3 million in 2008 at Sotheby's New York.

Of the top 10 auction sales of all time, eight were sold off in New York  and two in London. Four were auctioned at publicly-traded Sotheby's (NYSE:BID) and six at its privately held competitor, Christie's.

Keep in mind that this is a list of sales at auction. Many private sales have gone for much more. The royal family of Qatar dropped $250 million on Paul Cézanne's "The Card Players" in 2011. Jackson Pollock's " Number 5, 1948? was sold by billionaire David Geffen in 2006 to an undisclosed buyer for $140 million, making it the most expensive sale of a contemporary painting to date. Geffen also sold Willem de Kooning's "Woman III" to fellow billionaire Steven A. Cohen for $137.5 million in 2006.