#1 THE CARD PLAYERS (1892-93), PAUL CEZANNE – $259 MILLION
This is actually a series of five paintings done by the post-impressionist artist from France named Paul Cezanne. The first two featured three card players. One has a single spectator aside from the three players and is housed with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The other has two spectators and is owned by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The last three featured two players only. One is housed with the Musee d' Orsay in Paris and another at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. The largest one was sold to the royal family of Qatar in 2011 for $259 million.
#2 NO. 5, 1948 (1948), JACKSON POLLOCK – $140 MILLION
An unknown buyer bought this painting via a private sale through Sotheby's in 2006. Originally owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., the painting is an example of the abstract expressionist movement. It features what appears to be a nest made by liberal amounts of yellow and brown paint drizzled over the canvas.
#3 PORTRAIT OF ADELE BLOCH-BAUER I (1907), GUSTAV KLIMT – $135 MILLION
This Klimt classic was sold to Ronald Lauder of Neue Galerie in 2006. He used as his model Adele Block-Bauer, the wife of the wealthy Austrian industrialist Ferdinand Block-Bauer. Klimt would later use her again as a model in 1912. Painted in oil and gold, the painting features complex ornamentation in the Jugendstil style. The Nazis confiscated it during the Second World War before it was finally awarded to Maria Altmann, the niece of Bloch-Bauer, in 2006.
#4 THE SCREAM (1895), EDVARD MUNCH – $119.9 MILLION
Leon Black bought this 1895 pastel through a Sotheby's auction in New York in 2012. There are four versions to this painting that was collectively entitled as Der Schrei der Natur, or The Scream of Nature. The artwork features a figure with an agonized and pained expression. The figure is set against a backdrop of a fiery orange sky. The other three versions are in Oslo in Norway. One painting is with the National Gallery of Oslo. The second painting and the other pastel are with the Munch Museum in the same city.
#5 NUDE, GREEN LEAVES AND BUST (1932), PABLO PICASSO – $106.5 MILLION
An unknown buyer bought this painting in 2010 at a Christie's auction in New York. This oil on canvas painting features the mistress and muse of Picasso named Marie Therese Walter. The canvas has a vibrant blue and lilac color. It is the second most expensive painting to be sold at an auction.
#6 EIGHT ELVISES (1963), ANDY WARHOL – $100 MILLION
Annibale Berlingieri sold this artwork to an unknown buyer through a private sale arranged by Philippe Segalot in 2008. It is actually a silkscreen painting done by the renowned American pop artist Andy Warhol. It featured the "King of Rock and Roll" himself, Elvis Presley.
#7 DORA MAAR AU CHAT (1941), PABLO PICASSO – $95.2 MILLION
Boris Ivanishvili bought this painting from the Gidwitz family in 2006 at a Sotheby's auction in New York. This is the third Picasso on the list and just like the first one, it featured one of the painter's lovers. This time, the lover who posed for the master artist was Dora Maar, a woman 26 years younger than him. Picasso had done several paintings of Maar during their relationship that lasted nearly 10 years. The painting was done at a time when the Nazis were occupying France.
