The World's Most Expensive Art

By Callum Asterman

Artists like Pollock, Picasso and Cezanne are some of those whose works are now worth millions.

Jackson Pollock's No 5 was a painting that was sold four years ago for a huge fee. Abstract works by Pollock are highly rated by lovers of expressionism so when this yellow and brown drizzle-like painting was valued so highly non-one was surprised.


Sold at around the same time, and for roughly the same price as No5 by Pollock, was the painting entitled Woman III by the artist de Kooning. De Kooking was another abstract expressionist painter and in the fifties painted a series of six works about a woman.

Paintings by Klimt are well known to anyone with even a passing interest in art so when his work Adele Bloch Bauer I was sold in 2006, the price of $135 dollars was not surprising. The Austrian artist's style is described as symbolist and he frequently painted the female form. This painting took him three years to complete and was created using gold and oil on canvas.

Picasso experimented with several styles of painting during his life and also produced several works worth millions. His painting The Boy with a Pipe sold in 2004 for 104 million dollars The painting depicts Herod's infanticide from the Gospel of Matthew and was created in the early sixteen hundreds. For two hundred years the painting was mistakenly attributed to one of Ruben's helpers until it was identified in 2001, and later sold to a Canadian media baron. It is currently being renovated and has been shown in national galleries in the UK and Canada.

Van Gogh's "Portrait de L'Artiste sans Barbe" was was a self-portrait fetching over 70 million pounds in the late nineties. The artist had shaved off his beard and this is one of several self portraits Van Gogh created. His other highly valued works include Road with Cypress and Star and The Round of Prisoners and of course his very famous chair and sunflower paintings. In the three years before his death Van Gogh painted numerous portraits of himself, this being the only one where he does not have a beard.

Vincent van Gogh created several portraits of people other than himself and the Portrait du Dr. Gachet became one of the most famous when it sold in 1990 for $82.5 million. Gachet was a French physician who treated Vincent van Gogh during the last few weeks of his life.

Cezanne, a French post-impressionist created Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier (or Drapery, Pitcher, and Fruit Bowl) in 1894. This painting, done in the latter years of his life is regarded among his list of greatest achievements yet commanded a price of 60 million dollars in 1999. Its known to be the most expensive still life painting ever sold, but later was resold for less. His portraits and self-portraits are also highly rated.

If emulating the work of the great masters is of interest then cheap art supplies can be obtained to help you achieve respectable results. Quality materials, patience and a level of talent can produce rewarding outcomes, even if not the multi-million dollar masterpieces mentioned here.