The most famous and expensive works of fine art/paintings in the world

mona lisaThe Mona Lisa – painted by Leonardo da Vinci – could be worth anything from seven hundred million dollars up to a billion dollars

Number 5 – artist Jackson Pollock – it’s thought to have been sold for a 140 million dollars.  It’s an example of Pollock’s approach to fine art painting in as much as he treated all areas of the canvas equally.

Woman III – by Willem de Kooning – one of six numbered “Women paintings” and sold privately for $237 million.

Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer – painted by Gustav Klint and sold for 135 million dollars

Garçon à la pipe – by Pablo Picasso – $104,200,000 – although the work “Nude, Green and Bust” by the same artist was also sold at $106.5 million in 2010 and “Dora Maar au Chat” for $95,200,000

Eight Elvisses – a work by Andy Warhol – this was sold at a private sale in 2009 for a hundred million dollars

Triptych – was painted by Francis Bacon – and was sold in 2008 for $86.3 million dollars

Portrait of Dr. Gachet – 82.5 million dollars was the price paid for this work from Vincent Van Gogh with the Doctor in question revealing a melancholy disposition.  Perhaps he would have cheered up years later at the painting fetching such a price!

False Start – Jasper Johns was the artist and this painting was sold for $80 million.  This made it the most expensive painting to be sold by a living artist.

Le Moulin de la Galette – $78,100,000 for this painting by Pierre-August Renoir.  This was the second most lucrative work of fine art ever sold at the time of its sale, back in 1990.

Massacre of the Innocents – painted by Peter Paul Rubens, sold back in 2002 for

$76,700,000

Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier – the painter was Paul Cézanne and it sold in New York for $60,500,000 to one of America’s wealthiest families

Irises – painted by Vincent Van Gogh … it sold for $ 54,000,000 in 1987, then later it was sold again to the Getty Museum