The 10 most expensive artworks sold in 2022

The year 2022 can be described as a return to routine. With the slight depression of auctions due to the pandemic, lots did not exceed the $100 million mark. However, the secondary market has since regained its pre-pandemic luster, and in many ways. The market skyrocketed! There have been six lots this year that have fetched prices in excess of $100 million, even surpassing sales in 2017 that yielded the $450 million Salvator Mundi (circa 1499–1510) by Leonardo da Vinci and a $110 painting. million by Jean-Michel Basquiat, between others. Outstanding auction results came in November, largely driven by the sale of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's collection. Six of the top 10 results at this year's auction came from Allen's sale at Christie's of New York, which totaled more than $1.5 billion, making it the most expensive single-owner sale ever undertaken at auction. The top end of the auction market this year was not as exceptional, however, as its representation of the usual art market suspects: the top 50 auction results were all achieved by a selection of 30 male artists, 28 of whom were American or Europeans.

1. Andy Warhol, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, 1964

$195,040,000

Andy Warhol regained the title of American artist with the most expensive lot at auction with a staggering $195 million, obtained at a Christie's sale in New York last May. The serigraphy of 1964, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, dethroned Jean-Michel's iconic skull painting Basquiat, untitled (1982), eventually becoming the second most expensive work to be sold at auction. Shot Sage Blue Marilyn analyzes a society submerged in consumerism and serves as a colorful encapsulation of some of Warhol's most defining artistic motifs, including his embrace of industrial screen printing aesthetics and his fascination with celebrity iconography.

2. Georges Seurat, Les Poseuses, Ensemble (small version), 1888

$149,240,000

This remarkable and reflective masterpiece by Post-Impressionist master Georges Seurat was the highlight of Christie's presentation of the Paul Allen collection when it sold for $149.24 million to a buyer in Asia, surpassing Seurat's previous record of $34 million, achieved at Christie's in 2018. The last time Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version) appeared at auction in 1970, sold for just over $1 million. The piece references Seurat's most famous artwork,A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte (Un dimanche d'été à l'Île de La Grande Jatte ) (1884), portrayed in its composition people living together in the park. Seurat's versatility with the pointillist style and the painting's connection to famous Seurat works held by museums probably fueled this result.

3. Paul Cezanne, The Sainte-Victoire Mountain, 1888–1890

$137,790,000

This powerful landscape by Paul Cézanne continued the run of records for Allen's collection, more than double the French painter's previous record of $59 million, set for a still life. Bouilloire et Fruits(1888–90) at Christie's in May 2019. La Montagne Sainte-Victoire(1888-1890) is a post-impressionist work that shows Cézanne's masterful brushstrokes, in a blocky form and saturated colors, which serve as a preamble to the emergence of Cubism in the following decades. La Montagne Sainte-Victoireit has a historical provenance, passing through the hands of famous dealers such as Ambroise Vollard, Auguste Pellerin and Heinz Berggruen on its way to Allen's collection. Berggruen took the work to auction in May 2001, when Allen purchased it for $38.5 million. In the following decades, La Montagne Sainte-Victoireappreciated more than 250%.

4. Vincent Van Gogh, Verger with cypress, 1888

$117,180,000

Another post-impressionist work from the Allen collection that fetched $117.1 million at Christie's. This delicate painting by Vincent Van Gogh of a pastel spring garden sprouting with the artist's favorite cypresses, broke the artist's record. The old record was held by Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890), which sold for $83 million at Christie's in 1990. At the time, the most expensive work of art ever sold. The secondary market may have surpassed this price in subsequent years, but the Van Gogh surprisingly it never did. The next closest result was reached when laborer dans un champ (1889) sold for $81 million at Christie's in 2017; another landscape of cypresses, Oxen huts parmi les oliviers et cyprès (1889), grossed $71 million last year. Verger with cypress is a somewhat unique work by the Dutch painter, due to the frequency of pointillism rather than the wavy brushstrokes of his most famous paintings, yet it was 100% approved by the market.

5. Paul Gauguin, Maternity II, 1899

$105,730,000

This Paul Gauguin masterpiece from Allen's collection sold for $105.7 million, making it the most expensive work by the French artist ever sold at auction. Its previous auction record was set in 2006 when L'Homme à la hache (1891) sold at a Christie's New York sale for $40.3 million. The exorbitant result achieved by Maternity II (1899) represents a growth in parity between Gauguin's public and private sales. In 2015, it was reported that a work from the artist's Tahitian period, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When are you getting married?) (1892), sold for $300 million in a private sale to the Emir of Qatar; that number was later revealed to have been inflated from the actual $210 million sale price. Now, the auction crowd's interest in Gauguin appears to be approaching those heights.

6. Gustav Klimt, birch forest, 1903

$104,585,000

This elusive forest landscape of the Viennese fin-de-siècle icon Gustav Klimt raised US$ 104.5 million during the sale of Allen and completes the list of more than US$ 100 million resulting from that auction. birch forest (1903) surpassed Klimt's existing auction record by more than $15 million. This previous record was achieved by Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), which sold for $87.9 million at a Christie's New York auction in 2006. At that same auction, birch forest it sold for $40.3 million to Allen himself: this latest result represents an increase in value of nearly 160%. Many of the artist's significant auction results achieved in the interim have been landscape paintings that have revolved around a similar price, with the most recent notable result achieved in 2017 when Bauerngarten (Blumengarten) (1907) sold for $59 million at Sotheby's. birch forest it is Klimt's first auction to top $100 million.

7. Lucian Freud, Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau),1981–83

$86,265,000

This wonderful group portrait of Lucian Freud represents one of the more contemporary offerings in Allen's collection, but this relative newness did nothing to detract from its outcome. Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau) (1981–83) sold for $86.2 million, setting a new record for the British painter. The painting already set a record when it sold at auction for $5.8 million in 1998, although the top spot ended up going to the artist's 1994 painting, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, which sold for $56.1 million at Christie's in 2015. This latest result represents a significant increase in secondary market demand for the late artist, who is currently the subject of an extensive retrospective at London's National Gallery in honor of the centenary of his birth.

8. Andy Warhol, White Disaster [White Car Crash 19 Times], 1963

$85,350,500

The market year Andy Warhol continued into November: at a Sotheby's night sale in New York, White Disaster [White Car Crash 19 Times] (1963) achieved a result of $85.3 million. The painting comes from Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series, which saw the pop artist repurpose his pastel-toned serial reproduction methods to focus on a darker, more violent subject matter. The last time a work from this series appeared at auction was in 2013, when Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold for $104.5 million at Sotheby's, a record at the time. With this latest result, the car crash paintings are now the second and third most expensive Warhol works ever sold at auction.

9. Jean-Michel Basquiat, untitled,1982

$85,000,000

This wonderful example of the iconic Jean-Michel Basquiat raised $85 million in a Phillips sale. The work had already been sold at Christie's in 2016 for US$ 57.2 million. At this auction it surpassed that number and became the third highest price ever achieved for a work by the legendary neo-expressionist artist. Maezawa was the collector who, in 2017, purchased another untitled 1982 skull painting by the artist for $110.4 million at a Sotheby's sale, which, at that point, made it the most expensive artwork by an American artist ever. sold at auction. That work was only dethroned this year, by Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, by Warhol. the heads of Basquiat have been the subject of increased secondary market attention in recent years: In This Case (1983) sold for $93.1 million at Christie's in 2021; and in 2020, an untitled work on paper from 1982 sold for $13.1 million at a Sotheby's online auction, making it the artist's most expensive work ever sold online.

10. René Magritte, empire of light , 1961

$79,243,069

This dreamy painting from surrealist René Magritte's iconic "Empire of Lights" series sold for $79.2 million at Sotheby's last March. The result is more than triple the artist's previous auction record of $26.8 million, set in 2018 by Le Principe du Plaisir (The Pleasure Principle) (1937). This was the first time Empire of Light (L'empire des lumières) (1961) appeared at auction. It was painted and was in the collection of Magritte's patron and longtime friend, Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet. The work was exhibited extensively during the time Gillion Crowet owned it, showing at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Seoul Museum of Art, and the Musée Magritte, among others.