Most Expensive Paintings Sold at Auction (All Time)
Source:
Wikipedia
Key Findings
🏆
Salvator Mundi (Da Vinci) leads in Auction Price (Million USD) with 450.30 in 2022.
📅
2017 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.
↔️
Gap in 2022: Salvator Mundi (Da Vinci) is 5.2× larger than Orange, Red, Yellow (Rothko).
About This Dataset
Most Expensive Paintings Sold at Auction (All Time)
Artworks ranked by hammer price at public auction in millions of USD. Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi achieved the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction when it sold at Christie's New York in 2017 for $450.3 million — more than double the previous record and a sale that ignited global debate about the work's attribution and authenticity.
Analysis
The top three in Auction Price (Million USD) in 2022 are Salvator Mundi (Da Vinci) (450.3), Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (Warhol) (195) and Les Femmes d'Alger (Picasso) (179.4). The 8 entries cover a range of 363.4, from 450.3 down to 86.9. Most of that gap is between first and second alone (255.3 of 363.4); the other 7 are separated by just 108.1. The other 6 are bunched between 86.9 and 179.4.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia
- Coverage
- 8 entities · 2004–2022 (6 years) · 8 observations
- Measure
- Auction Price (Million USD)
- Last updated
- 6 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Missing years are left empty rather than estimated — no interpolation, no carrying a previous year forward.
- Change is measured between the first and last year in which an entity actually reported a value, so a series that starts late is not penalised for the years before it existed.
- The compound annual rate is (last ÷ first)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, using those same two reported years.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2022.
- An entity that reported nothing in the latest year is still listed — it follows the ranked entities in the table rather than being dropped.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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