Modigliani nude sells for $170.4 million – Who else makes the top 10?
This week Christie’s International sold Amedeo Modigliani’s portrait Nu couché, or “Reclining Nude”, to Chinese collectors Liu Yiqian and his wife, Wang Wei, for a reported $170.4 million, the second-highest price ever paid at auction for a work of art. As the rich increasingly see art as a way to stash their cash, stories of unbelievable price tags are becoming a regular occurrence.
Where do you think Modigliani’s nude will come in the top 10 most expensive paintings of all time? Below is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The sale prices are in US dollars and inflation adjusted.
10. Le Rêve by Pablo Picasso
$156.9 million
9. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt
$157.9 million
8. Woman III by Willem de Kooning
$160.9 million
7. No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock
$163.8 million
6. Nu Couché by Amedeo Modigliani
$170.4 million
5. Les Femmes d’Alger (“Version O”) by Pablo Picasso
$179.4 million
4. Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit by Rembrandt
$180 million
3. No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red) by Mark Rothko
$186 million
2. The Card Players by Paul Cézanne
approx. $272 million (exact price unknown)
1. Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) by Paul Gauguin
approx $300 million (exact price unknown)
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