New York’s fall auction season is in full swing, and modern and contemporary sales are off to a strong start. On 18 November, Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for US$236 million, making it the second-most expensive painting ever sold at auction – and offering a welcome boost to a market that had stagnated in recent years.
The result marks the first shake-up of the top 10 auction sales for paintings in two years. With that in mind, The Value has taken a fresh look at the current rankings – from Leonardo da Vinci to Qi Baishi, Klimt to Picasso – in a list now worth more than US$1.96 billion.
Editor’s Note: For more on Klimt’s record-breaking portrait, see the related article: At US$236.3m, Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer becomes the second most expensive work ever auctioned
Portrait of Elisabeth also became the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction by Sotheby’s
Key Figures from the List:
- Portraits of women dominate the rankings, with only one landscape – Qi Baishi's hanging scrolls, which is also the sole Eastern entry
- The 10 paintings span 8 artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Gustav Klimt, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso (2 works), Amedeo Modigliani (2 works), Georges Seurat, Francis Bacon, and Qi Baishi.
- Christie’s leads with 6 of the 10 sales, followed by Sotheby’s with 3 and Poly Auction Beijing with 1.
- All but one work sold in New York, cementing the city's role as the global art market capital
- The entry threshold now stands at US$139 million, with Picasso's Femme à la montre taking the 10th spot
1st | Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) | Salvator Mundi, oil on panel
65.7 x 45.7 cm
Christie's New York | 15 November 2017
Seller: Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev
Buyer: Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism
Sold: US$450,312,500
Depicting Christ holding a crystal orb and offering a blessing, Salvator Mundi shows the savior in blue robes rather than traditional red. The work is one of fewer than 15 surviving paintings definitively attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, with nearly all others held in museums or churches.
The US$450 million sale shattered all previous auction records but immediately sparked intrigue. Initial reports named Prince Badr bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as the buyer, later revealed to be acting on behalf of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The official purchaser was eventually confirmed as Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi announced plans to exhibit the painting – posters were printed and promotional materials released – but the work never appeared. Some believe it remains on the crown prince's yacht; others suggest it was quietly placed in storage in Switzerland.
What’s clear is that, eight years later, the world’s most expensive painting remains out of view.
Leonard Lauder, longtime CEO and second-generation heir of the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire
2nd | Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) | Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, oil on canvas
180.4 x 130.5 cm
Sotheby's New York | 18 November 2025
Seller: Leonard Lauder, second-generation heir of the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire
Sold: US$236,360,000
The painting now holds the record for Gustav Klimt – and for modern art at auction – and the art world awaits news of the buyer.
Klimt began as a classically trained decorative painter but rebelled against conservative academic traditions to co-found the Vienna Secession in 1897, a movement that championed avant-garde ideals and laid the groundwork for Austrian modernism.
He is best known for his portraits, which blend sensuality, symbolism, and decorative richness. Works like The Kiss have become icons of early 20th-century art. In Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, Klimt depicts the 20-year-old daughter of his most important patron in an imperial dragon robe, balancing Viennese sophistication with East Asian influence.
Only two of Klimt’s full-length portraits remain in private hands – this is one of them. The other, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), was sold by Oprah Winfrey in a private 2017 sale to a Chinese collector, reportedly for US$150 million.
3rd | Andy Warhol (1926-1987) | Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, acrylic and silkscreen on linen
101.6 x 101.6 cm
Christie's New York | 9 May 2022
Seller: Swiss art dealers Thomas and Doris Ammann
Buyer (reportedly): Larry Gagosian, founder of Gagosian Gallery
Sold: US$195,040,000
If Salvator Mundi represents Renaissance art at its most revered, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn stands as a defining image of the 20th century.
After Marilyn Monroe’s death in 1962, Warhol began a silkscreen series based on a publicity photo from the film Niagara. Not long after, performance artist and socialite Dorothy Podber visited his studio and asked if she could “shoot” the paintings. Warhol agreed, thinking she meant photograph – but Podber pulled out a gun and fired. The “Shot Marilyns” series was born.
Five versions exist, each with a different background color: red, orange, light blue, sage blue, and turquoise. Only the turquoise version escaped unharmed; the rest – including this one – bear bullet holes that ironically increased their fame.
4th | Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) | Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O), oil on canvas
114 x 146.4 cm
Christie's New York | 11 May 2015
Buyer (reportedly): Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim
Sold: US$179,365,000
Picasso created this series as a homage to two masters: Eugène Delacroix, the French Romantic painter who produced two works of the same title, and Henri Matisse, his friend and rival, who had died the previous year, in 1954.
The series comprises 15 paintings – Versions A through O – completed between 1954 and 1955, all featuring reclining odalisques in richly decorated interiors. In 1956, American collector Victor Ganz acquired the entire set in a single transaction. He later sold ten to the Saidenberg Gallery, retaining Versions C, H, K, M, and O.
Following Ganz’s death, those five works eventually returned to the market. Version O, the final and largest painting in the series, sold in 2015 for more than US$179 million – then the highest price ever achieved at auction. The record stood until Salvator Mundi surpassed it in 2017.
Liu Yiqian and his wife Wang Wei founded the Long Museum in Shanghai
5th | Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) | Nu couché, oil on canvas
59.9 x 92 cm
Christie's New York | 9 November 2015
Seller: Daughter of Italian collector Gianni Mattioli
Buyer: Liu Yiqian, founder of the Long Museum in Shanghai
Sold: US$170,405,000
Amedeo Modigliani carved out a singular path in early 20th-century Paris, developing a style distinct from the dominant avant-garde movements of his time. Born in Italy in 1884, he spent much of his short life in poverty, battling chronic illness before dying of tuberculosis at just 35.
Though he worked in both sculpture and painting, Modigliani is best known for his nudes – full-length, reclining figures with elongated forms, stylized poses, and detached, melancholic expressions. Loosely linked to primitivist and Post-Impressionist circles, he pursued a sensual, simplified aesthetic that challenged academic norms and was often seen as provocative.
Like Van Gogh, Modigliani was largely unrecognized during his lifetime but rose to prominence after his death, his work now celebrated for its emotional intensity and unmistakable style.
This painting, Nu couché (Reclining Nude), sold in 2015 for over $170 million. Acquired by Liu Yiqian, one of China’s most prominent collectors, it now resides in the Long Museum in Shanghai.
6th | Amedeo Modigliani | Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), oil on canvas
89.5 x 146.7 cm
Sotheby's New York | 14 May 2018
Sold: US$157,159,000
In 2017, the Doge’s Palace in Genoa hosted a major Modigliani retrospective that drew more than 100,000 visitors. When experts identified forgeries in nearly a third of the works on display, the exhibition was shut down and the paintings seized. The scandal underscored the premium placed on authenticated Modigliani works, making the appearance of a museum-quality nude particularly significant.
A year later, Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) (Reclining Nude on the Left Side) came to auction with a record-high estimate of US$150 million. Measuring nearly 147 centimeters across, it is Modigliani’s largest nude painting and the only one of his horizontal nudes to depict the full figure within the canvas.
The work sold for US$157 million, achieving what was then the highest price in Sotheby's history. The winning bid came via phone through Patti Wong, then Chairwoman of Sotheby's Asia, suggesting strong interest from the Asian market, where Modigliani has gained a significant collector following.
7th | Georges Seurat (1859-1891) | Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version), oil on canvas
39.5 x 50 cm
Christie's New York | 9 November 2022
Seller: Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder
Sold: US$149,240,000
Georges Seurat is a central figure of Post-Impressionism and, alongside Paul Signac, a pioneer of Pointillism – a term originally coined by critics as mockery, much like “Impressionism.” Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version) was painted in response to criticism of Seurat’s earlier work, particularly from academics who dismissed his scientific approach to color as cold and mechanical.
Painted in response to criticism who dismissed his scientific approach to color, Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version) shows the same model in three different poses within an artist’s studio. On the back wall hangs Seurat’s own masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, while motifs from that painting – hats, umbrellas, dresses – are echoed throughout the room.
Two versions of Les Poseuses exist: a large version held by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, and this smaller version, often preferred for its more controlled pointillist execution and intimate scale.
In 2022, the painting returned to auction as part of the Paul Allen collection. The winning bid was placed by Xin Li-Cohen, Christie’s Deputy Chairman, on behalf of an anonymous phone bidder, believed to be from Asia.
8th | Francis Bacon | Three Studies of Lucian Freud, oil on canvas
198 x 147.5 cm each (triptych)
Christie's New York | 12 November 2013
Buyer (reportedly): Elaine Wynn, ex-wife of Steve Wynn, founder of Wynn Resorts
Sold: US$142,405,000
British painter Francis Bacon is best known for his distorted, psychologically charged figurative works, particularly his Pope series. He often turned to those closest to him as subjects, creating some of his most penetrating portraits of friends, lovers, and rivals.
Three Studies of Lucian Freud, painted in 1969, reflects Bacon’s complex relationship with fellow painter Lucian Freud. The two met in London in 1944 and quickly formed a bond that would last nearly four decades. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, they were fixtures of the Soho art scene – drinking, debating, and critiquing each other’s work with unfiltered intensity.
The triptych format allowed Bacon to explore different aspects of Freud's character across three panels, capturing both his physical presence and psychological depth. Their relationship was famously volatile – part rivalry, part brotherhood – and that tension helped fuel some of their most compelling work.
The painting sold at Christie’s New York in 2013 for over US$142 million. The buyer was reportedly Elaine Wynn, the prominent collector and former board member of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, who had divorced casino magnate Steve Wynn.
9th | Qi Baishi (1864-1957) | Twelve Landscape Screens, ink on paper
180 x 47cm x 12
Poly Auction Beijing | 17 December 2017
Sold: RMB 931,500,000 (around US$140.8 million)
This is the only Eastern artwork on the list – and remains the most expensive Chinese artwork ever sold.
Painted in 1925, Twelve Landscape Screens is one of only two known complete sets by Qi Baishi, one of China's most celebrated modern masters of traditional ink painting. Created when Qi was 62 and in his artistic prime, the set was presented as a birthday gift to Chen Zilin, a prominent Beijing physician and art patron.
Each of the twelve scrolls follows a consistent vertical format, painted in ink on paper and depicting misty mountains, rivers, cottages, and distant sails – sparse, expressive visions rooted in the literati painting tradition, the refined, scholarly style of China’s cultural elite, but rendered with Qi’s distinctive clarity and vitality.
This set of scrolls represents the culmination of Qi’s landscape practice following his extensive travels across China, marking a departure from classical conventions toward a style rooted in spiritual stillness. The other known set, dated around 1932, was gifted to the Sichuan military commander Wang Zuoxu and is now held in the Chongqing Museum.
10th | Pablo Picasso | Femme à la montre, oil on canvas
130 x 97 cm
Sotheby’s New York | 8 November 2023
Seller: American collector Emily Fisher Landau
Sold: US$139,363,500
Painted in 1932 – Picasso’s so-called annus mirabilis or “year of wonders” – Femme à la montre captures his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter at the height of their secret relationship.
They met in 1927 outside Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Marie-Thérèse was just seventeen, athletic and open-hearted; Picasso, then forty-five, was instantly drawn to her youth and energy. He famously introduced himself by saying, “You have an interesting face. I would like to do a portrait of you. I am Picasso. You and I are going to do great things together.”
In this portrait, crisp lines and geometric forms define the chair and dress, while Marie-Thérèse projects a sense of poise and self-possession. Her gaze meets the viewer directly, her face split between light and shadow in a subtle suggestion of the artist’s own presence.
Notably, a wristwatch appears on her left wrist – a rare motif found in only three portraits across Picasso's entire oeuvre. The timepiece held special significance for the artist, himself a passionate collector of watches.