Today, contemporary painting has gained incredible popularity, so it has become known not only for its tendency to expand boundaries and explore new means of expression, but also for record sales figures in the contemporary art market over the past few years. Moreover, artists from almost all over the world, from America to Asia, enjoy success. Next, you will find out whose names represent the best contemporary painting in the world, who he is, the most expensive contemporary artist, and who fell just short of this title.

The most expensive contemporary artists

Among the myriad names that modern painting has, the paintings of only certain artists enjoy exceptional success. Among them, the most expensive paintings were owned by the famous neo-expressionist and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who, however, died at the age of 27. On our list you will see only the first seven of those wealthy artists who are still alive today.

Brice Marden

The works of this American author are quite difficult to classify and lead to a single art movement, although he is often classified as a representative of either minimalism or abstractionism. But unlike artists in these styles, whose paintings seem to have never been touched, Marden's modern painting retains the palette knife strokes and other traces of his work. One of those who influenced his work is considered to be another contemporary artist, Jasper Johns, whose name you will see later.

Zeng Fanzhi

This contemporary artist is one of the main figures in the Chinese art scene today. It was his work called “The Last Supper,” based on the famous work of Leonardo da Vinci, that was sold for $23.3 million and became the most expensive painting that modern Asian painting can boast of. Also famous are the artist’s works “Self-Portrait”, the triptych “Hospital” and paintings from the “Masks” series.

In the 90s, his painting style often underwent changes and eventually moved away from expressionism to symbolism.

Peter Doig

Peter Doig is an internationally renowned Scottish contemporary artist whose work is permeated by the theme of magical realism. Many of his works tend to disorient the viewer, even when they depict recognizable images such as figures, trees and buildings.

In 2015, his painting “Swamped” managed to break the record and become the most expensive painting by contemporary artists from Scotland, being sold at auction for 25.9 million. Doig’s paintings “The Architect’s House in the Hollow”, “White Canoe”, “Reflection”, “Roadside Diner” and others are also popular.

Christopher Wool

In his work, contemporary artist Christopher Wool explores various post-conceptual ideas. The artist's most famous contemporary paintings are block lettering depicted in black on a white canvas.

Such paintings by contemporary artists cause a lot of controversy and discontent among adherents of traditional painting, but, one way or another, one of Wool’s works, “Apocalypse,” brought him $26 million. Wool does not think long about the titles of the paintings, but names them according to the inscriptions: “Blue Fool”, “Trouble”, etc.

Jasper Johns

Contemporary artist Jasper Johns is known for his rebellious attitude towards Abstract Expressionism, which dominated the painting arena early in the artist's career. Moreover, he works by creating expensive canvases with flags, license plates, numbers and other well-known symbols that already have a clear meaning and do not need to be deciphered.

By the way, the most expensive paintings by contemporary artists include the American work “Flag”, sold at auction in 2010 for $28 million. You can also look at the works “Three Flags”, “False Start”, “From 0 to 9”, “Target with Four Faces” and many others.

Gerhard Richter

This modern artist from Germany, like many painters at the beginning of his career, studied realistic academic painting, but later became interested in more progressive art.

In the author’s work one can see the influence of many art movements of the 20th century, such as abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism and conceptualism, but at the same time Richter retained a skeptical attitude towards all established artistic and philosophical beliefs, being confident that modern painting is dynamics and search. The artist’s works include “Land of Meadows”, “Reading”, “1024 Colors”, “Wall”, etc.

Jeff Koons

And finally, here he is - the most expensive contemporary artist in the whole world. American Jeff Koons works in the neo-pop style and is known for his catchy, kitschy and defiant creativity.

He is mainly known as the author of a huge number of modern sculptures, some of which were exhibited at Versailles itself. But also among the artist’s works there are paintings for which special connoisseurs are willing to pay millions of dollars: “Bell of Liberty”, “Auto”, “Girl with a Dolphin and a Monkey”, “Saddle” and others.

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Rating of auction results of works of Russian art

1. Only public auction results were accepted for participation.
2. Belonging to Russian artists was determined by place of birth. Born in the Russian Empire or in the USSR - that means he is a Russian artist, without regard to ethnic origin or discounts on how fate developed in the future. For example, the fact that Kandinsky at different times had both Russian and German citizenship, and he died with French citizenship, is not a reason to doubt that the artist is Russian.
3. Rule: one artist - one painting. That is, the situation when, strictly speaking, all the first places would have to be allocated to the works of Mark Rothko, is resolved this way: we leave only the most expensive work, and ignore all other results for the paintings of this artist.

The rating is based on results taking into account the Buyers Premium, expressed in dollars (figures shown at European auctions, i.e. in pounds or euros, are converted into dollars at the exchange rate on the day of trading). Therefore, neither “The Spanish Flu” by Goncharova, sold on February 2, 2010 for £6.43 million, nor the painting “View of Constantinople and the Bosporus Strait” by Aivazovsky, for which £3.23 million was paid on April 24, 2012, were not included in the rating. in the transaction currency, i.e. in pounds, they are more expensive than the paintings that took a place in the ranking, but they were not lucky with the dollar exchange rate.

1. $86.88 million Mark Rothko. Orange, Red, Yellow (1961)

One of the most mysterious artists of our time. His life's path seems to be woven from contradictions - in creative searches, in actions, in gestures... Considered one of the ideologists and, of course, a key figure in American abstract expressionism, Rothko could not stand it when his works were called abstract. Having known well in the past what living from hand to mouth was, he once defiantly returned to his customers an absolutely fantastic advance in terms of today’s money, leaving himself with an almost completely completed work. Having been waiting for his success and the opportunity to make a living from painting for almost fifty years, he more than once refused people who could destroy his career if they wanted. At the very least, a socialist at heart, who shared the ideas of Marx and was hostile to the rich and wealth, Rothko eventually became the author of the most expensive paintings in the world, which actually turned into an attribute of the high status of their owners. (It’s no joke, the record-breaking “White Center,” sold for $65 million, came from the Rockefeller family.) Dreaming of recognition by the mass audience, he eventually became the creator of paintings that are still truly understandable only to a circle of intellectuals and connoisseurs. Finally, the artist, who sought a conversation with God through the music of his canvases, the artist, whose works became the central element in the design of the church of all religions, ended his life with a completely desperate act of fighting against God...

Rothko, who remembered the Pale of Settlement and the Cossacks, might have been surprised that they are also proud of him as a Russian artist. However, there was plenty of anti-Semitism in America in the 1930s - it was no coincidence that the artist “truncated” the family surname Rotkovich. But we call him Russian for a reason. To begin with, based on the fact of birth. Latvian Dvinsk, present-day Daugavpils, at the time of the birth of Marcus Rotkovich, is part of Russia and will remain so until the collapse of the empire, until 1918. True, Rothko will no longer see the revolution. In 1913, the boy was taken to the USA, the family moved to Portland, Oregon. That is, I spent my childhood and adolescence in Russia, where my life perception and outlook were formed. In addition to the fact that he was born here, Rothko is associated with Russia, we note, both ideological themes and conflicts. It is known that he appreciated the works of Dostoevsky. And even the vices that Rothko indulged in are for some reason associated in the world with Russians. For some reason, depression in the West is called a “Russian disease.” Which is not an argument, of course, but another touch to the integrity of the Russian artist’s nature.

It took Rothko 15 long years to make innovative discoveries in painting. Having gone through many figurative hobbies, including surrealism and figurative expressionism, in the mid-1940s he extremely simplified the structure of his paintings, limiting the means of expression to a few colorful blocks that form the composition. The intellectual basis of his work is almost always a matter of interpretation. Rothko usually did not give direct answers, counting on the viewer's participation in understanding the work. The only thing he definitely counted on was the emotional work of the viewer. His paintings are not for rest, not for relaxation and not for “visual massage”. They are designed for empathy. Some see them as windows that allow one to look into the viewer’s soul, while others see them as doors to another world. There is an opinion (perhaps the closest to the truth) that his color fields are metaphorical images of God.

The decorative power of the “color fields” is explained by a number of special techniques used by Rothko. His paintings do not tolerate massive frames - at most thin edges in the color of the canvas. The artist deliberately tinted the edges of the paintings in a gradient so that the pictorial field lost its borders. The fuzzy boundaries of the inner squares are also a technique, a way without contrast to create the effect of trembling, the seeming overlapping of color blocks, the pulsation of spots, like the flickering of light from electric lamps. This soft dissolution of color within color was particularly achieved in oils, until Rothko's switch to opaque acrylic in the late sixties. And the found effect of electrical pulsation intensifies if you look at the paintings at close range. According to the artist’s plan, it is optimal for the viewer to view three-meter canvases from a distance of no more than half a meter.

Today, Rothko's paintings are the pride of any famous museum of modern art. Thus, in the English Tate Gallery there is a Rothko hall, in which nine paintings from those that were painted under a contract with the Four Seasons restaurant live. There is a story connected with this project that is quite indicative of Rothko’s character. In 1959, the artist was contacted by recommendation from the owners of the fashionable restaurant “Seasons,” which opened in the unusual New York skyscraper Seagram Building (named after the company that produced the alcohol). The contract amount in today's money was almost $3 million - a very significant fee even for an established, recognized artist, as Rothko was at that time. However, when the work was almost completed, Rothko unexpectedly returned the advance and refused to hand it over to the customer. Among the main reasons for the sudden act, biographers considered the reluctance to please the ruling class and entertain the rich at dinner. It is also believed that Rothko was upset when he learned that his paintings would not be seen by ordinary employees working in the building. However, the latest version looks too romantic.

Almost 10 years later, Rothko donated some of the canvases prepared for the Four Seasons to the Tate Gallery in London. In a bitter irony of fate, on February 25, 1970, the day the boxes with paintings reached the English port, the artist was found dead in his studio - with his veins cut and (apparently for guarantee) a huge dose of sleeping pills in his stomach.

Today, Rothko's work is experiencing another wave of sincere interest. Seminars are held, exhibitions are opened, monographs are published. On the banks of the Daugava, in the artist’s homeland, a monument was erected.

Rothko's works are not exceptionally rare on the market (like, for example, Malevich's paintings). Every year, approximately 10–15 pieces of his paintings alone are put up for auction at auctions, not counting graphics. That is, there is no shortage, but millions and tens of millions of dollars are paid for them. And such prices are hardly accidental. Rather, it is a tribute to his innovation, a desire to open new layers of meaning and join the creative phenomenon of one of the most mysterious Russian artists.

On May 8, 2012, at the auction of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s, the canvas “Orange, Red, Yellow” from 1961 went for $86.88 million, including commission. The work comes from the collection of Pennsylvania art patron David Pincus. David and his wife Gerry bought the work, measuring 2.4 × 2.1 meters, from the Marlborough Gallery, and then loaned it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a long time. The painting “Orange, Red, Yellow” became not only the most expensive work by an artist of Russian origin, but also the most expensive work of post-war and contemporary art sold at open auction.

2. $60.00 million. Kazimir Malevich. Suprematist composition (1916)

During her long life, first together with Robert, and after his death in 1941 alone, Sonya was able to try out many genres in art. She was engaged in painting, book illustration, theatrical sketches (in particular, she designed the scenery of Diaghilev’s ballet “Cleopatra”), clothing design, interior design, textile patterns, and even car tuning.

Sonia Delaunay's early portraits and abstractions from the 1900s-10s, as well as works from the Color Rhythms series from the 1950s-60s, are very popular at international and national French auctions. Their prices often reach several hundred thousand dollars. The artist's main record was set more than 10 years ago - on June 14, 2002 at the Calmels Cohen Paris auction. Then the abstract work “Market in Minho”, written in 1915, during the life of the Delaunay couple in Spain (1914–1920), was sold for €4.6 million.

32. $4.30 million. Mikhail Nesterov. Vision to the Youth Bartholomew (1922)

If we evaluate our artists on a peculiar scale of “Russianness,” then Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (1862–1942) can safely be placed somewhere at the beginning of the list. His paintings depicting saints, monks, and nuns in a lyrical “Nesterov” landscape, completely in tune with the highly spiritual mood of the heroes, became a unique phenomenon in the history of Russian art. In his canvases, Nesterov talked about Holy Rus', about its special spiritual path. The artist, in his own words, “avoided depicting strong passions, preferring to them a modest landscape, a person living an inner spiritual life in the arms of our Mother Nature.” And according to Alexander Benois, Nesterov, along with Surikov, was the only Russian artist who came at least partially close to the lofty divine words of “The Idiot” and “Karamazovs”.

The special style and religiosity of Nesterov’s paintings were formed from many factors. He was also influenced by his upbringing in a patriarchal, devout merchant family in the city of Ufa with its typically Russian landscapes, and his years of studying with the Itinerants Perov, Savrasov and Pryanishnikov at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (from them he adopted the idea of ​​art that touches the mind and heart) and from Pavel Chistyakov at the Academy of Arts (here he took up the technique of academic drawing), and trips to Europe for inspiration, and a deep personal drama (the death of his beloved wife Maria a day after the birth of their daughter Olga).

As a result, by the late 1880s - early 1890s, Nesterov had already found his theme, and it was at this time that he wrote “Vision to the Youth Bartholomew” (1889–1890). The plot of the picture is taken from the Life of St. Sergius. The youth Bartholomew (the future Sergius of Radonezh) met an angel in the guise of a monk and received God's blessing from him to understand the Holy Scriptures and surpass his brothers and peers. The picture is imbued with a sense of the miraculous - it is not only and not so much in the figures of Bartholomew and the Holy Elder, but also in the surrounding landscape, which is especially festive and spiritual.

In his declining years, the artist more than once called “Bartholomew” his main work: “... if thirty, fifty years after my death he still says something to people, that means he is alive, that means I am alive.” The painting became a sensation at the 18th exhibition of the Itinerants and instantly made the young Ufa artist famous (Nesterov was not yet thirty at the time). P. M. Tretyakov acquired “Vision...” for his collection, despite attempts to dissuade him from, as Nesterov put it, “orthodox Wanderers,” who correctly noticed in the work the undermining of the “rationalistic” foundations of the movement. However, the artist had already taken his own course in art, which ultimately made him famous.

With the advent of Soviet power, not the best times came for Nesterov with his religious painting. The artist switched to portraits (fortunately he had the opportunity to paint only people he deeply liked), but did not dare to think about his previous subjects. However, when in the early 1920s there was a rumor that a large exhibition of Russian art was being prepared in America, Nesterov quickly decided to participate in the hope of reaching a new audience. He wrote several works for the exhibition, including the author’s repetition of “Vision to the Youth Bartholomew” (1922), called “Vision to St. Sergius in adolescence” in the American press. The new version is smaller in format (91 × 109) compared to the Tretyakov version (160 × 211), the moon has appeared in the sky, the colors of the landscape are somewhat darker, and there is more seriousness in the face of the youth Bartholomew. Nesterov, as it were, sums up with this picture the great changes that have occurred since the writing of the first “Vision...”.

Nesterov's paintings were among the few at the 1924 Russian Art Exhibition in New York that were purchased. “Vision to the Youth Bartholomew” ended up in the collection of famous collectors and patrons of Nicholas Roerich - Louis and Nettie Horsch. From then until 2007, work was passed down in this family by inheritance. And finally, on April 17, 2007, at Sotheby’s Russian auction, the canvas was offered with an estimate of $2–3 million and easily exceeded it. The final price of the hammer, which became a record for Nesterov, was $4.30 million. With this result, he entered our rating.

33. $4.05 million. Vera Rokhlina. Gamblers (1919)

Vera Nikolaevna Rokhlina (Schlesinger) is another wonderful artist of Russian emigration, included in our rating along with Natalia Goncharova, Tamara Lempitskaya and Sonia Delaunay. Information about the artist’s life is very scarce; her biography is still waiting for its researcher. It is known that Vera Shlesinger was born in 1896 in Moscow into a Russian family and a French woman from Burgundy. She studied in Moscow with Ilya Mashkov and was almost his favorite student, and then took lessons in Kyiv with Alexandra Exter. In 1918, she married lawyer S.Z. Rokhlin and went with him to Tiflis. From there, in the early 1920s, the couple moved to France, where Vera began to actively exhibit at the Autumn Salon, the Salon of the Independents and the Salon of the Tuileries. In her painting style, she initially followed the ideas of Cubism and Post-Impressionism, but by the early 1930s she had already developed her own style, which one French magazine called “an artistic balance between Courbet and Renoir.” In those years, Vera already lived separately from her husband, in Montparnasse, had couturier Paul Poiret among her admirers, and chose female portraits and nudes as the main theme in her painting, which may have been facilitated by her acquaintance with Zinaida Serebryakova (even a portrait of a nude Serebryakova by Rokhlina has survived), and the artist’s personal exhibitions were held in Parisian galleries. But in April 1934, 38-year-old Vera Rokhlina committed suicide. What made a woman in her prime, who had already achieved a lot in the creative field, take her own life remains a mystery. Her premature death was called the biggest loss in the Paris art scene in those years.

Rokhlina's legacy is located mainly abroad, where Vera spent the last 13 years of her life and where her talent was fully revealed. In the 1990s and early 2000s, French museums and galleries began holding solo exhibitions of Rokhlina and including her work in group exhibitions of artists from the School of Paris. Collectors found out about her, her works began to be sold at auctions, and quite well. The peak of sales and prices occurred in 2007–2008, when about a hundred thousand dollars for a good format painting by Rokhlina became commonplace. And so on June 24, 2008, at the evening auction of impressionists and modernists at Christie's in London, Vera Rokhlina's cubist painting "Gamblers", painted before emigration, in 1919, was unexpectedly sold at 8 times the estimate - for £2.057 million ($4.05 million) with an estimate of £250–350 thousand.

34. $4.02 million. Mikhail Klodt. Night in Normandy (1861)

35. $3.97 million. Pavel Kuznetsov. Eastern city. Bukhara (1912)

For Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (1878–1968), the son of an icon painter from the city of Saratov, a graduate of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (where he studied with Arkhipov, Serov and Korovin), one of the organizers of the Blue Rose association, one of the main and, Certainly, the most recognized theme of creativity among the public was the East. When Pavel Kuznetsov’s first symbolist period of the 1900s with semi-fantastic images of “Fountains”, “Awakenings” and “Births” exhausted itself, the artist went to the East for inspiration. He remembered how, as a child, he visited his grandfather in the Trans-Volga steppes and observed the life of nomads. “Suddenly I remembered about the steppes and went to the Kirghiz,” wrote Kuznetsov. From 1909 to 1914, Kuznetsov spent several months in the Kyrgyz steppes, among the nomads, becoming imbued with their way of life and accepting them as his kindred, “Scythian” soul. In 1912–1913, the artist traveled through the cities of Central Asia, lived in Bukhara, Samarkand, and the foothills of the Pamirs. In the 1920s, the study of the East continued in Transcaucasia and Crimea.

The result of these eastern travels was a series of stunning paintings, in which one can feel the “Goluborozovsky” love for the blue palette, and the symbolism of icons and temple frescoes close to the artist from childhood, and the perceived experience of such artists as Gauguin, Andre Derain and Georges Braque, and, well, of course, all the magic of the East. Kuznetsov's oriental paintings were warmly received not only in Russia, but also at exhibitions in Paris and New York.

A major creative success was the cycle of paintings “Eastern City” written in Bukhara in 1912. One of the largest paintings in the “Eastern City” series. Bukhara” was auctioned at MacDougall’s in June 2014 with an estimate of £1.9–3 million. The work has impeccable provenance and exhibition history: it was purchased directly from the artist; has not changed its place of residence since the mid-1950s; participated in the World of Art exhibitions, the exhibition of Soviet art in Japan, as well as in all the major lifetime and posthumous retrospectives of the artist. As a result, a record price for Kuznetsov was paid for the painting: £2.37 million ($3.97 million).

36. $3.82 million. Alexander Deineka. Heroes of the First Five-Year Plan (1936)

37. $3.72 million. Boris Grigoriev. The Shepherd of the Hills (1920)

Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev (1886–1939) emigrated from Russia in 1919. He became one of the most famous Russian artists abroad, but at the same time he was forgotten in his homeland for many decades, and his first exhibitions in the USSR took place only in the late 1980s. But today he is one of the most sought-after and highly valued authors on the Russian art market; his works, both paintings and graphics, are sold for hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars.

The artist was extremely efficient; in 1926 he wrote to the poet Kamensky: “Now I am the first master in the world.<…>I don't apologize for these phrases. You need to know who you are, otherwise you won’t know what to do. Yes, and my life is holy from above-average work and above-average feelings, and my 40 years prove this. I am not afraid of any competition, any order, any topic, any size and any speed.”

Probably the most famous are his cycles “Race” and “Faces of Russia” - very close in spirit and differing only in that the first was created before emigration, and the second already in Paris. In these cycles, we are presented with a gallery of types (“faces”) of the Russian peasantry: old men, women, and children look gloomily straight at the viewer, they attract the eye and at the same time repel it. Grigoriev was by no means inclined to idealize or embellish those whom he painted; on the contrary, sometimes he brings images to the grotesque. Among the “faces” painted already in exile, portraits of Grigoriev’s contemporaries - poets, actors of the Art Theater, as well as self-portraits - are added to the peasant portraits. The image of the peasant “Race” expanded to a general image of an abandoned, but not forgotten Motherland.

One of these portraits - the poet Nikolai Klyuev in the image of a shepherd - became the most expensive painting by Boris Grigoriev. At the Sotheby’s auction on November 3, 2008, the work “The Shepherd of the Hills” from 1920 was sold for $3.72 million with an estimate of $2.5–3.5 million. The portrait is the author’s copy of a lost portrait from 1918.

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"Card Players"

Author

Paul Cezanne

A country France
Years of life 1839–1906
Style post-impressionism

The artist was born in the south of France in the small town of Aix-en-Provence, but began painting in Paris. Real success came to him after a personal exhibition organized by collector Ambroise Vollard. In 1886, 20 years before his departure, he moved to the outskirts of his hometown. Young artists called trips to him “a pilgrimage to Aix.”

130x97 cm
1895
price
$250 million
sold in 2012
at private auction

Cezanne's work is easy to understand. The artist’s only rule was the direct transfer of an object or plot onto the canvas, so his paintings do not cause bewilderment to the viewer. Cezanne combined in his art two main French traditions: classicism and romanticism. With the help of colorful textures, he gave the shape of objects amazing plasticity.

The series of five paintings “Card Players” was painted in 1890–1895. Their plot is the same - several people enthusiastically play poker. The works differ only in the number of players and the size of the canvas.

Four paintings are kept in museums in Europe and America (Museum d'Orsay, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation and the Courtauld Institute of Art), and the fifth, until recently, was an adornment of the private collection of the Greek billionaire shipowner Georg Embirikos. Shortly before his death, in the winter of 2011, he decided to put it up for sale. Potential buyers of Cezanne’s “free” work were art dealer William Acquavella and world-famous gallery owner Larry Gagosian, who offered about $220 million for it. As a result, the painting went to the royal family of the Arab state of Qatar for 250 million. The largest art deal in the history of painting was closed in February 2012. Journalist Alexandra Pierce reported this in Vanity Fair. She found out the cost of the painting and the name of the new owner, and then the information penetrated the media around the world.

In 2010, the Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Qatar National Museum opened in Qatar. Now their collections are growing. Perhaps the fifth version of The Card Players was acquired by the sheikh for this purpose.

The mostexpensive paintingin the world

Owner
Sheikh Hamad
bin Khalifa al-Thani

The al-Thani dynasty has ruled Qatar for more than 130 years. About half a century ago, huge reserves of oil and gas were discovered here, which instantly made Qatar one of the richest regions in the world. Thanks to the export of hydrocarbons, this small country has the largest GDP per capita. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani seized power in 1995, while his father was in Switzerland, with the support of family members. The merit of the current ruler, according to experts, is in a clear strategy for the country's development and in creating a successful image of the state. Qatar now has a constitution and a prime minister, and women have the right to vote in parliamentary elections. By the way, it was the Emir of Qatar who founded the Al-Jazeera news channel. The authorities of the Arab state pay great attention to culture.

2

"Number 5"

Author

Jackson Pollock

A country USA
Years of life 1912–1956
Style abstract expressionism

Jack the Sprinkler - this was the nickname given to Pollock by the American public for his special painting technique. The artist abandoned the brush and easel, and poured paint over the surface of the canvas or fiberboard during continuous movement around and inside them. From an early age, he was interested in the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, the main message of which is that the truth is revealed during a free “outpouring.”

122x244 cm
1948
price
$140 million
sold in 2006
on the auction Sotheby's

The value of Pollock's work lies not in the result, but in the process. It is no coincidence that the author called his art “action painting.” With his light hand, it became the main asset of America. Jackson Pollock mixed paint with sand and broken glass, and painted with a piece of cardboard, a palette knife, a knife, and a dustpan. The artist was so popular that in the 1950s imitators were found even in the USSR. The painting “Number 5” is recognized as one of the strangest and most expensive in the world. One of the founders of DreamWorks, David Geffen, purchased it for a private collection, and in 2006 sold it at Sotheby's auction for $140 million to Mexican collector David Martinez. However, the law firm soon issued a press release on behalf of its client stating that David Martinez was not the owner of the painting. Only one thing is known for certain: the Mexican financier has indeed recently collected works of modern art. It is unlikely that he would have missed such a “big fish” as Pollock’s “Number 5”.

3

"Woman III"

Author

Willem de Kooning

A country USA
Years of life 1904–1997
Style abstract expressionism

A native of the Netherlands, he immigrated to the United States in 1926. In 1948, the artist’s personal exhibition took place. Art critics appreciated the complex, nervous black and white compositions, recognizing their author as a great modernist artist. He suffered from alcoholism for most of his life, but the joy of creating new art is felt in every work. De Kooning is distinguished by the impulsiveness of his painting and broad strokes, which is why sometimes the image does not fit within the boundaries of the canvas.

121x171 cm
1953
price
$137 million
sold in 2006
at private auction

In the 1950s, women with empty eyes, massive breasts, and ugly facial features appeared in de Kooning’s paintings. "Woman III" was the last work from this series to be auctioned.

Since the 1970s, the painting was kept in the Tehran Museum of Modern Art, but after the introduction of strict moral rules in the country, they tried to get rid of it. In 1994, the work was exported from Iran, and 12 years later its owner David Geffen (the same producer who sold Jackson Pollock’s “Number 5”) sold the painting to millionaire Steven Cohen for $137.5 million. It is interesting that in one year Geffen began to sell off his collection of paintings. This gave rise to a lot of rumors: for example, that the producer decided to buy the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

At one of the art forums, an opinion was expressed about the similarity of “Woman III” with the painting “Lady with an Ermine” by Leonardo da Vinci. Behind the toothy smile and shapeless figure of the heroine, the connoisseur of painting saw the grace of a person of royal blood. This is also evidenced by the poorly drawn crown crowning the woman’s head.

4

"Portrait of AdeleBloch-Bauer I"

Author

Gustav Klimt

A country Austria
Years of life 1862–1918
Style modern

Gustav Klimt was born into the family of an engraver and was the second of seven children. Ernest Klimt's three sons became artists, but only Gustav became famous throughout the world. He spent most of his childhood in poverty. After his father's death, he became responsible for the entire family. It was at this time that Klimt developed his style. Any viewer freezes in front of his paintings: frank eroticism is clearly visible under the thin strokes of gold.

138x136 cm
1907
price
$135 million
sold in 2006
on the auction Sotheby's

The fate of the painting, which is called the “Austrian Mona Lisa,” could easily become the basis for a bestseller. The artist’s work caused a conflict between an entire state and one elderly lady.

So, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” depicts an aristocrat, the wife of Ferdinand Bloch. Her last wish was to donate the painting to the Austrian State Gallery. However, Bloch canceled the donation in his will, and the Nazis expropriated the painting. Later, the gallery with difficulty bought the Golden Adele, but then an heiress appeared - Maria Altman, the niece of Ferdinand Bloch.

In 2005, the high-profile trial “Maria Altmann against the Republic of Austria” began, as a result of which the film “left” with her for Los Angeles. Austria took unprecedented measures: negotiations were held on loans, the population donated money to buy the portrait. Good never defeated evil: Altman raised the price to $300 million. At the time of the proceedings, she was 79 years old, and she went down in history as the person who changed Bloch-Bauer’s will in favor of personal interests. The painting was purchased by Ronald Lauder, owner of the New Gallery in New York, where it remains to this day. Not for Austria, for him Altman reduced the price to $135 million.

5

"Scream"

Author

Edvard Munch

A country Norway
Years of life 1863–1944
Style expressionism

Munch’s first painting, which became famous throughout the world, “The Sick Girl” (there are five copies) is dedicated to the artist’s sister, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 15. Munch was always interested in the theme of death and loneliness. In Germany, his heavy, manic painting even provoked a scandal. However, despite the depressive subjects, his paintings have a special magnetism. Take "Scream" for example.

73.5x91 cm
1895
price
$119.992 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

The full title of the painting is Der Schrei der Natur (translated from German as “the cry of nature”). The face of either a human or an alien expresses despair and panic - the same emotions the viewer experiences when looking at the picture. One of the key works of expressionism warns of themes that have become acute in the art of the 20th century. According to one version, the artist created it under the influence of a mental disorder that he suffered from all his life.

The painting was stolen twice from different museums, but was returned. Slightly damaged after the theft, The Scream was restored and was again ready for display at the Munch Museum in 2008. For representatives of pop culture, the work became a source of inspiration: Andy Warhol created a series of print copies of it, and the mask from the film “Scream” was made in the image and likeness of the hero of the picture.

For one subject, Munch wrote four versions of the work: the one that is in a private collection is made in pastels. Norwegian billionaire Petter Olsen put it up for auction on May 2, 2012. The buyer was Leon Black, who did not spare a record amount for “Scream”. Founder of Apollo Advisors, L.P. and Lion Advisors, L.P. known for his love of art. Black is a patron of Dartmouth College, the Museum of Modern Art, the Lincoln Art Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has the largest collection of paintings by contemporary artists and classical masters of past centuries.

6

"Nude against the background of a bust and green leaves"

Author

Pablo Picasso

A country Spain, France
Years of life 1881–1973
Style cubism

He is Spanish by origin, but by spirit and place of residence he is a true Frenchman. Picasso opened his own art studio in Barcelona when he was only 16 years old. Then he went to Paris and spent most of his life there. That is why his surname has a double accent. The style invented by Picasso is based on the denial of the idea that an object depicted on canvas can only be viewed from one angle.

130x162 cm
1932
price
$106.482 million
sold in 2010
on the auction Christie's

During his work in Rome, the artist met dancer Olga Khokhlova, who soon became his wife. He put an end to vagrancy and moved into a luxurious apartment with her. By that time, recognition had found the hero, but the marriage was destroyed. One of the most expensive paintings in the world was created almost by accident - out of great love, which, as always with Picasso, was short-lived. In 1927, he became interested in the young Marie-Therese Walter (she was 17 years old, he was 45). Secretly from his wife, he left with his mistress to a town near Paris, where he painted a portrait, depicting Marie-Therese in the image of Daphne. The canvas was purchased by New York dealer Paul Rosenberg, and in 1951 he sold it to Sidney F. Brody. The Brodys showed the painting to the world only once and only because the artist was turning 80 years old. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Brody put the work up for auction at Christie’s in March 2010. Over six decades, the price has increased more than 5,000 times! An unknown collector bought it for $106.5 million. In 2011, an “exhibition of one painting” took place in Britain, where it was released for the second time, but the name of the owner is still unknown.

7

"Eight Elvises"

Author

Andy Warhole

A country USA
Years of life 1928-1987
Style
pop Art

“Sex and parties are the only places where you need to appear in person,” said the cult pop art artist, director, one of the founders of Interview magazine, designer Andy Warhol. He worked with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, designed record covers, and designed shoes for the I.Miller company. In the 1960s, paintings appeared depicting symbols of America: Campbell's and Coca-Cola soup, Presley and Monroe - which made him a legend.

358x208 cm
1963
price
$100 million
sold in 2008
at private auction

The Warhol 60s was the name given to the era of pop art in America. In 1962, he worked in Manhattan at the Factory studio, where all the bohemians of New York gathered. Its prominent representatives: Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote and other famous personalities in the world. At the same time, Warhol tested the technique of silk-screen printing - repeated repetition of one image. He also used this method when creating “The Eight Elvises”: the viewer seems to be seeing footage from a movie where the star comes to life. Here there is everything that the artist loved so much: a win-win public image, silver color and a premonition of death as the main message.

There are two art dealers promoting Warhol's work on the world market today: Larry Gagosian and Alberto Mugrabi. The former spent $200 million in 2008 to acquire more than 15 works by Warhol. The second one buys and sells his paintings like Christmas cards, only at a higher price. But it was not they, but the modest French art consultant Philippe Segalot who helped the Roman art connoisseur Annibale Berlinghieri sell “Eight Elvises” to an unknown buyer for a record amount for Warhol – $100 million.

8

"Orange,Red Yellow"

Author

Mark Rothko

A country USA
Years of life 1903–1970
Style abstract expressionism

One of the creators of color field painting was born in Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils, Latvia), into a large family of a Jewish pharmacist. In 1911 they emigrated to the USA. Rothko studied at the Yale University art department and won a scholarship, but anti-Semitic sentiments forced him to leave his studies. Despite everything, art critics idolized the artist, and museums pursued him all his life.

206x236 cm
1961
price
$86.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Christie's

Rothko's first artistic experiments were of a surrealist orientation, but over time he simplified the plot to color spots, depriving them of any objectivity. At first they had bright shades, and in the 1960s they became brown and purple, thickening to black by the time of the artist’s death. Mark Rothko warned against looking for any meaning in his paintings. The author wanted to say exactly what he said: only color dissolving in the air, and nothing more. He recommended viewing the works from a distance of 45 cm, so that the viewer would be “drawn” into the color, like into a funnel. Be careful: viewing according to all the rules can lead to the effect of meditation, that is, the awareness of infinity, complete immersion in oneself, relaxation, and purification gradually come. The color in his paintings lives, breathes and has a strong emotional impact (they say, sometimes healing). The artist declared: “The viewer should cry while looking at them,” and such cases actually happened. According to Rothko's theory, at this moment people live the same spiritual experience as he did while working on the painting. If you were able to understand it on such a subtle level, you will not be surprised that these works of abstract art are often compared by critics to icons.

The work “Orange, Red, Yellow” expresses the essence of Mark Rothko’s painting. Its initial price at Christie’s auction in New York is $35–45 million. An unknown buyer offered a price twice the estimate. The name of the lucky owner of the painting, as often happens, is not disclosed.

9

"Triptych"

Author

Francis Bacon

A country
Great Britain
Years of life 1909–1992
Style expressionism

The adventures of Francis Bacon, a complete namesake and also a distant descendant of the great philosopher, began when his father disowned him, unable to accept his son’s homosexual inclinations. Bacon went first to Berlin, then to Paris, and then his tracks became confused throughout Europe. During his lifetime, his works were exhibited in leading cultural centers of the world, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.

147.5x198 cm (each)
1976
price
$86.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

Prestigious museums sought to possess Bacon's paintings, but the prim English public was in no hurry to fork out for such art. The legendary British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said about him: “The man who paints these terrifying pictures.”

The artist himself considered the post-war period to be the starting period in his work. Returning from service, he took up painting again and created major masterpieces. Before the participation of “Triptych, 1976,” Bacon’s most expensive work was “Study for a Portrait of Pope Innocent X” ($52.7 million). In “Triptych, 1976” the artist depicted the mythical plot of the persecution of Orestes by the Furies. Of course, Orestes is Bacon himself, and the Furies are his torment. For more than 30 years, the painting was in a private collection and did not participate in exhibitions. This fact gives it special value and, accordingly, increases the cost. But what is a few million for an art connoisseur, and a generous one at that? Roman Abramovich began creating his collection in the 1990s, in which he was significantly influenced by his friend Dasha Zhukova, who became a fashionable gallery owner in modern Russia. According to unofficial data, the businessman personally owns works by Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso, purchased for amounts exceeding $100 million. In 2008 he became the owner of the Triptych. By the way, in 2011, another valuable work by Bacon was acquired - “Three Sketches for a Portrait of Lucian Freud.” Hidden sources say that Roman Arkadyevich again became the buyer.

10

"Pond with water lilies"

Author

Claude Monet

A country France
Years of life 1840–1926
Style impressionism

The artist is recognized as the founder of impressionism, who “patented” this method in his paintings. The first significant work was the painting “Luncheon on the Grass” (the original version of the work by Edouard Manet). In his youth he drew caricatures, and took up real painting during his travels along the coast and in the open air. In Paris he led a bohemian lifestyle and did not leave it even after serving in the army.

210x100 cm
1919
price
$80.5 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's

In addition to the fact that Monet was a great artist, he was also a keen gardener and adored wildlife and flowers. In his landscapes, the state of nature is momentary, objects seem to be blurred by the movement of air. The impression is enhanced by large strokes; from a certain distance they become invisible and merge into a textured, three-dimensional image. In the paintings of late Monet, the theme of water and life in it occupies a special place. In the town of Giverny, the artist had his own pond, where he grew water lilies from seeds he specially brought from Japan. When their flowers bloomed, he began to paint. The “Water Lilies” series consists of 60 works that the artist painted over almost 30 years, until his death. His vision deteriorated with age, but he did not stop. Depending on the wind, time of year and weather, the appearance of the pond was constantly changing, and Monet wanted to capture these changes. Through careful work, he came to understand the essence of nature. Some of the paintings in the series are kept in leading galleries in the world: the National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo), the Orangerie (Paris). A version of the next “Pond with Water Lilies” went into the hands of an unknown buyer for a record amount.

11

False Star t

Author

Jasper Johns

A country USA
Year of birth 1930
Style pop Art

In 1949, Jones entered design school in New York. Along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and others, he is recognized as one of the main artists of the 20th century. In 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

137.2x170.8 cm
1959
price
$80 million
sold in 2006
at private auction

Like Marcel Duchamp, Jones worked with real objects, depicting them on canvas and in sculpture in full accordance with the original. For his works, he used simple and understandable objects: a beer bottle, a flag or cards. There is no clear composition in the film False Start. The artist seems to be playing with the viewer, often “wrongly” labeling the colors in the painting, inverting the very concept of color: “I wanted to find a way to depict color so that it could be determined by some other method.” His most explosive and “unconfident” painting, according to critics, was acquired by an unknown buyer.

12

"Seatednudeon the couch"

Author

Amedeo Modigliani

A country Italy, France
Years of life 1884–1920
Style expressionism

Modigliani was often ill since childhood; during a feverish delirium, he recognized his destiny as an artist. He studied drawing in Livorno, Florence, Venice, and in 1906 he went to Paris, where his art flourished.

65x100 cm
1917
price
$68.962 million
sold in 2010
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1917, Modigliani met 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne, who became his model and then his wife. In 2004, one of her portraits was sold for $31.3 million, which was the last record before the sale of “Nude Seated on a Sofa” in 2010. The painting was purchased by an unknown buyer for the maximum price for Modigliani at the moment. Active sales of works began only after the artist’s death. He died in poverty, sick with tuberculosis, and the next day Jeanne Hebuterne, who was nine months pregnant, also committed suicide.

13

"Eagle on a Pine"

Author

Qi Baishi

A country China
Years of life 1864–1957
Style Guohua

Interest in calligraphy led Qi Baishi to painting. At the age of 28, he became a student of the artist Hu Qingyuan. The Chinese Ministry of Culture awarded him the title of "Great Artist of the Chinese People", and in 1956 he received the International Peace Prize.

10x26 cm
1946
price
$65.4 million
sold in 2011
on the auction China Guardian

Qi Baishi was interested in those manifestations of the surrounding world that many do not attach importance to, and this is his greatness. A man without education became a professor and an outstanding creator in history. Pablo Picasso said about him: “I am afraid to go to your country, because there is Qi Baishi in China.” The composition “Eagle on a Pine Tree” is recognized as the artist’s largest work. In addition to the canvas, it includes two hieroglyphic scrolls. For China, the amount for which the work was purchased represents a record - 425.5 million yuan. The scroll of the ancient calligrapher Huang Tingjian alone was sold for 436.8 million.

14

"1949-A-No. 1"

Author

Clyfford Still

A country USA
Years of life 1904–1980
Style abstract expressionism

At the age of 20, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was disappointed. Later he signed up for a course at the Student Arts League, but left 45 minutes after the start of the class - it turned out to be “not for him.” The first personal exhibition caused a resonance, the artist found himself, and with it recognition

79x93 cm
1949
price
$61.7 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

Still bequeathed all his works, more than 800 canvases and 1,600 works on paper, to an American city where a museum named after him will be opened. Denver became such a city, but construction alone was expensive for the authorities, and to complete it, four works were put up for auction. Still's works are unlikely to be auctioned again, which has increased their price in advance. The painting “1949-A-No.1” was sold for a record amount for the artist, although experts predicted the sale for a maximum of 25–35 million dollars.

15

"Suprematist composition"

Author

Kazimir Malevich

A country Russia
Years of life 1878–1935
Style Suprematism

Malevich studied painting at the Kyiv Art School, then at the Moscow Academy of Arts. In 1913, he began to paint abstract geometric paintings in a style he called Suprematism (from the Latin for “dominance”).

71x 88.5 cm
1916
price
$60 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

The painting was kept in the Amsterdam City Museum for about 50 years, but after a 17-year dispute with Malevich's relatives, the museum gave it away. The artist painted this work in the same year as the “Manifesto of Suprematism,” so Sotheby’s announced even before the auction that it would not go into a private collection for less than $60 million. And so it happened. It is better to look at it from above: the figures on the canvas resemble an aerial view of the earth. By the way, a few years earlier, the same relatives expropriated another “Suprematist Composition” from the MoMA Museum in order to sell it at the Phillips auction for $17 million.

16

"Bathers"

Author

Paul Gauguin

A country France
Years of life 1848–1903
Style post-impressionism

Until the age of seven, the artist lived in Peru, then returned to France with his family, but his childhood memories constantly pushed him to travel. In France, he began to paint and became friends with Van Gogh. He even spent several months with him in Arles, until Van Gogh cut off his ear during a quarrel.

93.4x60.4 cm
1902
price
$55 million
sold in 2005
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1891, Gauguin organized a sale of his paintings in order to use the proceeds to travel deep into the island of Tahiti. There he created works in which a subtle connection between nature and man is felt. Gauguin lived in a thatched hut, and a tropical paradise blossomed on his canvases. His wife was 13-year-old Tahitian Tehura, which did not stop the artist from engaging in promiscuous relationships. Having contracted syphilis, he left for France. However, it was crowded for Gauguin there, and he returned to Tahiti. This period is called the “second Tahitian” - it was then that the painting “Bathers” was painted, one of the most luxurious in his work.

17

"Daffodils and tablecloth in blue and pink tones"

Author

Henri Matisse

A country France
Years of life 1869–1954
Style Fauvism

In 1889, Henri Matisse suffered an attack of appendicitis. When he was recovering from surgery, his mother bought him paints. At first, Matisse copied color postcards out of boredom, then he copied works of great painters that he saw in the Louvre, and at the beginning of the 20th century he came up with a style - Fauvism.

65.2x81 cm
1911
price
$46.4 million
sold in 2009
on the auction Christie's

The painting “Daffodils and Tablecloth in Blue and Pink” belonged to Yves Saint Laurent for a long time. After the death of the couturier, his entire art collection passed into the hands of his friend and lover Pierre Berger, who decided to put it up for auction at Christie’s. The pearl of the sold collection was the painting “Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink tones,” painted on an ordinary tablecloth instead of canvas. As an example of Fauvism, it is filled with the energy of color, the colors seem to explode and scream. From the famous series of paintings painted on tablecloths, today this work is the only one that is in a private collection.

18

"Sleeping Girl"

Author

RoyLee

htenstein

A country USA
Years of life 1923–1997
Style pop Art

The artist was born in New York, and after graduating from school, he went to Ohio, where he took art courses. In 1949, Lichtenstein received a Master of Fine Arts degree. His interest in comics and his ability to use irony made him a cult artist of the last century.

91x91 cm
1964
price
$44.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

One day, chewing gum fell into Lichtenstein's hands. He redrew the picture from the insert onto canvas and became famous. This story from his biography contains the entire message of pop art: consumption is the new god, and there is no less beauty in a chewing gum wrapper than in the Mona Lisa. His paintings are reminiscent of comics and cartoons: Lichtenstein simply enlarged the finished image, drew rasters, used screen printing and silk-screen printing. The painting “Sleeping Girl” belonged to collectors Beatrice and Philip Gersh for almost 50 years, whose heirs sold it at auction.

19

"Victory. Boogie Woogie"

Author

Piet Mondrian

A country Netherlands
Years of life 1872–1944
Style neoplasticism

The artist changed his real name, Cornelis, to Mondrian when he moved to Paris in 1912. Together with the artist Theo van Doesburg, he founded the Neoplasticism movement. The Piet programming language is named after Mondrian.

27x127 cm
1944
price
$40 million
sold in 1998
on the auction Sotheby's

The most “musical” of the 20th century artists made a living from watercolor still lifes, although he became famous as a neoplastic artist. He moved to the USA in the 1940s and spent the rest of his life there. Jazz and New York are what inspired him the most! Painting “Victory. Boogie-Woogie" is the best example of this. The signature neat squares were achieved using adhesive tape, Mondrian’s favorite material. In America he was called “the most famous immigrant.” In the sixties, Yves Saint Laurent released world-famous “Mondrian” dresses with large checkered prints.

20

"Composition No. 5"

Author

BasilKandinsky

A country Russia
Years of life 1866–1944
Style avant-garde

The artist was born in Moscow, and his father was from Siberia. After the revolution, he tried to cooperate with the Soviet government, but soon realized that the laws of the proletariat were not created for him, and not without difficulties he emigrated to Germany.

275x190 cm
1911
price
$40 million
sold in 2007
on the auction Sotheby's

Kandinsky was one of the first to completely abandon object painting, for which he received the title of genius. During Nazism in Germany, his paintings were classified as “degenerate art” and were not exhibited anywhere. In 1939, Kandinsky took French citizenship, and in Paris he freely participated in the artistic process. His paintings “sound” like fugues, which is why many are called “compositions” (the first was written in 1910, the last in 1939). “Composition No. 5” is one of the key works in this genre: “The word “composition” sounded like a prayer to me,” said the artist. Unlike many of his followers, he planned what he would depict on a huge canvas, as if he were writing notes.

21

"Study of a Woman in Blue"

Author

Fernand Léger

A country France
Years of life 1881–1955
Style cubism-post-impressionism

Léger received an architectural education and then attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The artist considered himself a follower of Cezanne, was an apologist for Cubism, and in the 20th century was also successful as a sculptor.

96.5x129.5 cm
1912–1913
price
$39.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

David Norman, president of the international department of impressionism and modernism at Sotheby's, considers the huge amount paid for “The Lady in Blue” to be completely justified. The painting belongs to the famous Léger collection (the artist painted three paintings on one subject, the last of them is in private hands today. - Ed.), and the surface of the canvas has been preserved in its original form. The author himself gave this work to the Der Sturm gallery, then it ended up in the collection of Hermann Lang, a German collector of modernism, and now belongs to an unknown buyer.

22

“Street scene. Berlin"

Author

Ernst LudwigKirchner

A country Germany
Years of life 1880–1938
Style expressionism

For German expressionism, Kirchner became an iconic person. However, local authorities accused him of adhering to “degenerate art,” which tragically affected the fate of his paintings and the life of the artist, who committed suicide in 1938.

95x121 cm
1913
price
$38.096 million
sold in 2006
on the auction Christie's

After moving to Berlin, Kirchner created 11 sketches of street scenes. He was inspired by the bustle and nervousness of the big city. In the painting, sold in 2006 in New York, the artist’s anxious state is especially acutely felt: people on a Berlin street resemble birds - graceful and dangerous. It was the last work from the famous series sold at auction; the rest are kept in museums. In 1937, the Nazis treated Kirchner harshly: 639 of his works were removed from German galleries, destroyed or sold abroad. The artist could not survive this.

23

"Vacationist"dancer"

Author

Edgar Degas

A country France
Years of life 1834–1917
Style impressionism

Degas's history as an artist began with his work as a copyist at the Louvre. He dreamed of becoming “famous and unknown,” and in the end he succeeded. At the end of his life, deaf and blind, 80-year-old Degas continued to attend exhibitions and auctions.

64x59 cm
1879
price
$37.043 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's

“Ballerinas have always been for me just an excuse to depict fabrics and capture movement,” said Degas. Scenes from the lives of the dancers seem to have been spied on: the girls do not pose for the artist, but simply become part of the atmosphere caught by Degas’s gaze. “Resting Dancer” was sold for $28 million in 1999, and less than 10 years later it was bought for $37 million—today it is the most expensive work by the artist ever put up for auction. Degas paid great attention to frames, designed them himself and forbade them to be changed. I wonder what frame is installed on the painting sold?

24

"Painting"

Author

Joan Miro

A country Spain
Years of life 1893–1983
Style abstract art

During the Spanish Civil War, the artist was on the Republican side. In 1937, he fled from the fascist regime to Paris, where he lived in poverty with his family. During this period, Miro painted the painting “Help Spain!”, drawing the attention of the whole world to the dominance of fascism.

89x115 cm
1927
price
$36.824 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's

The second title of the painting is “Blue Star”. The artist painted it in the same year when he announced: “I want to kill painting” and mercilessly mocked the canvases, scratching the paint with nails, gluing feathers to the canvas, covering the works with garbage. His goal was to debunk the myths about the mystery of painting, but having coped with this, Miro created his own myth - surreal abstraction. His “Painting” belongs to the cycle of “dream paintings”. At the auction, four buyers fought for it, but one incognito phone call resolved the dispute, and “Painting” became the artist’s most expensive painting.

25

"Blue Rose"

Author

Yves Klein

A country France
Years of life 1928–1962
Style monochrome painting

The artist was born into a family of painters, but studied oriental languages, navigation, the craft of a frame gilder, Zen Buddhism and much more. His personality and cheeky antics were many times more interesting than monochrome paintings.

153x199x16 cm
1960
price
$36.779 million
sold in 2012
at Christie's auction

The first exhibition of monochromatic yellow, orange, and pink works did not arouse public interest. Klein was offended and next time presented 11 identical canvases, painted with ultramarine mixed with a special synthetic resin. He even patented this method. The color went down in history as “international Klein blue.” The artist also sold emptiness, created paintings by exposing paper to the rain, setting fire to cardboard, making prints of a person’s body on canvas. In a word, I experimented as best I could. To create “Blue Rose” I used dry pigments, resins, pebbles and a natural sponge.

26

"In Search of Moses"

Author

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

A country Great Britain
Years of life 1836–1912
Style neoclassicism

Sir Lawrence himself added the prefix “alma” to his surname so that he could be listed first in art catalogues. In Victorian England, his paintings were so in demand that the artist was awarded a knighthood.

213.4x136.7 cm
1902
price
$35.922 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

The main theme of Alma-Tadema's work was antiquity. In his paintings, he tried to depict the era of the Roman Empire in the smallest detail, for this he even carried out archaeological excavations on the Apennine Peninsula, and in his London house he reproduced the historical interior of those years. Mythological subjects became another source of inspiration for him. The artist was extremely in demand during his lifetime, but after his death he was quickly forgotten. Now interest is being revived, as evidenced by the cost of the painting “In Search of Moses,” which is seven times higher than the pre-sale estimate.

27

"Portrait of a sleeping naked official"

Author

Lucian Freud

A country Germany,
Great Britain
Years of life 1922–2011
Style figurative painting

The artist is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. After the establishment of fascism in Germany, his family emigrated to Great Britain. Freud's works are in the Wallace Collection Museum in London, where no contemporary artist has previously exhibited.

219.1x151.4 cm
1995
price
$33.6 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's

While fashionable artists of the 20th century created positive “color spots on the wall” and sold them for millions, Freud painted extremely naturalistic paintings and sold them for even more. “I capture the cries of the soul and the suffering of fading flesh,” he said. Critics believe that all this is the “legacy” of Sigmund Freud. The paintings were so actively exhibited and sold successfully that experts began to doubt: do they have hypnotic properties? The Portrait of a Nude Sleeping Official, sold at auction, according to the Sun, was purchased by a connoisseur of beauty and billionaire Roman Abramovich.

28

"Violin and Guitar"

Author

Xone Gris

A country Spain
Years of life 1887–1927
Style cubism

Born in Madrid, where he graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts. In 1906 he moved to Paris and entered the circle of the most influential artists of the era: Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, Matisse, Léger, and also worked with Sergei Diaghilev and his troupe.

5x100 cm
1913
price
$28.642 million
sold in 2010
on the auction Christie's

Gris, in his own words, was engaged in “planar, colored architecture.” His paintings were carefully thought out: he did not leave a single random stroke, which makes creativity similar to geometry. The artist created his own version of cubism, although he greatly respected Pablo Picasso, the founding father of the movement. The successor even dedicated his first work in the cubist style, “Tribute to Picasso,” to him. The painting “Violin and Guitar” is recognized as outstanding in the artist’s work. During his lifetime, Gris was famous and favored by critics and art critics. His works are exhibited in the world's largest museums and are kept in private collections.

29

"PortraitFields of Eluard"

Author

Salvador Dali

A country Spain
Years of life 1904–1989
Style surrealism

“Surrealism is me,” Dali said when he was expelled from the surrealist group. Over time, he became the most famous surrealist artist. Dali's work is everywhere, not just in galleries. For example, it was he who came up with the packaging for Chupa Chups.

25x33 cm
1929
price
$20.6 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's

In 1929, the poet Paul Eluard and his Russian wife Gala came to visit the great provocateur and brawler Dali. The meeting was the beginning of a love story that lasted more than half a century. The painting “Portrait of Paul Eluard” was painted during this historic visit. “I felt that I was entrusted with the responsibility of capturing the face of the poet, from whose Olympus I stole one of the muses,” said the artist. Before meeting Gala, he was a virgin and was disgusted at the thought of sex with a woman. The love triangle existed until Eluard's death, after which it became the Dali-Gala duet.

30

"Anniversary"

Author

Marc Chagall

A country Russia, France
Years of life 1887–1985
Style avant-garde

Moishe Segal was born in Vitebsk, but in 1910 he emigrated to Paris, changed his name, and became close to the leading avant-garde artists of the era. In the 1930s, during the seizure of power by the Nazis, he left for the United States with the help of the American consul. He returned to France only in 1948.

80x103 cm
1923
price
$14.85 million
sold 1990
at Sotheby's auction

The painting “Anniversary” is recognized as one of the artist’s best works. It contains all the features of his work: the physical laws of the world are erased, the feeling of a fairy tale is preserved in the scenery of bourgeois life, and love is at the center of the plot. Chagall did not draw people from life, but only from memory or imagination. The painting “Anniversary” depicts the artist himself and his wife Bela. The painting was sold in 1990 and has not been auctioned since then. Interestingly, the New York Museum of Modern Art MoMA houses exactly the same one, only under the name “Birthday”. By the way, it was written earlier - in 1915.

prepared the project
Tatiana Palasova
the rating has been compiled
according to the list www.art-spb.ru
tmn magazine No. 13 (May-June 2013)

Canvases by Russian artists of past centuries, both landscape and portrait painters, are often put up at auctions and interest in them is constantly growing. These paintings are very different from the works of inadequate contemporary artists, whose work you can see in this article. The struggle for the works of real masters is serious; people buy them for millions! Our rating of the most expensive famous paintings by Russian artists includes precisely those works that were sold at auctions.

$10.84 million Nikolay Feshin. Little cowboy

The famous great portrait master Nikolai Feshin graduated from the Academy of Arts in the studio of Ilya Repin, but lived almost his entire life in America. The paintings of the Russian artist are in 30 museums around the world. In our country, you can get acquainted with the master’s works at the Museum of the Academy of Arts.

This painting, entitled “Little Cowboy,” was purchased in 2010 by a Russian collector for $10.84 million at MacDougall’s auction. It is noteworthy that the starting price of the portrait was 700 thousand pounds sterling.

In general, good works with portraits of children have always been very popular.

$10.88 million. Natalia Goncharova. Flowers

Natalia Goncharova is called the “Amazon of the avant-garde”, an innovator of painting. She was an excellent decorator and graphic artist.

Her work “Flowers” ​​was sold at Christie’s in 2008 for $10.88 million. The painting was painted by the artist during a special period of her work. The work of painting harmoniously combines Rayonism, futurism, elements of Russian folk art and icon painting.

The canvas was exhibited at a Paris exhibition in the Paul Guillaume gallery in 1914.

$12.09 million. Nicholas Roerich. Madonna Laboris (Works of Our Lady)

Nicholas Roerich's painting "The Labors of the Mother of God" was sold at Bonhams in 2013 for $12 million. This is one of the canvases of a triptych, which includes two more works: “Our Lady of the Oriflamme” and “Our Lady of the Defender”.

Mini-copies of the paintings are in museums in Riga and New York. This masterpiece of painting came to auction directly from the collection of the Rosicrucian Order.

$14.51 million. Valentin Serov. Portrait of Maria Tsetlina

“Portrait of Maria Tsetlina” was painted by Valentin Serov in 1910. This is his most expensive work to date. The painting depicts Maria Samoilovna Tsetlina, a famous philanthropist, publisher, public and political figure.

In 2014, at a Christie’s auction, the painting was auctioned for $14.51 million. It is unknown who purchased it; the painting was purchased over the phone.

It is noteworthy that for a long time this work was considered lost, only in 1996 the whereabouts of the portrait became known.

$14.85 million. Marc Chagall. Anniversary

Another fabulously expensive painting, “Anniversary” by Marc Chagall, was sold in 1990 for $14.9 million. It was painted in 1923, during the so-called golden period of the artist. The canvas depicts his flight with his wife Bella.

Chagall's works are always highly valued and in demand. The artist's works can also be viewed in the Tretyakov Gallery.

$18.59 million. Alexey Yavlensky. Shocko in a wide-brimmed hat

Alexey Jawlensky’s work “Chocco in a Wide-Brim Hat” was sold at auction for $18.59 million. Wassily Kandinsky’s associate is especially popular in the West - there he is known under the name Alexej von Jawlensky. A large collection of the artist’s paintings is in the Omsk Art Gallery, which were given there by the artist’s brother Dmitry.

$23.04 million. Wassily Kandinsky. Sketch for “Improvisation No. 8”

“Sketch for Improvisation No. 8” was written in 1909 and was then the property of the Volkaert Brothers Charitable Foundation in Switzerland for almost 50 years.

In the fall of 2012, the painting was sold at Christie’s auction in New York for $23 million. The canvas depicts scenes from the history of Kievan Rus.

$28.16 million. Chaim Soutine. Bull carcass

The famous Russian painter, representative of the School of Paris, Chaim Soutine, wrote from 1923 to 1925 a cycle of 9 canvases depicting bull carcasses. Only three of the nine ink paintings are currently in the possession of private collectors, and the largest and most striking one sold for a record $28.16 million.

At first, the artist was fond of painting still lifes, and then he began to hang the animal carcass on the wall and continued to create his masterpieces, not noticing that the meat deteriorates over time. There have been numerous cases when, due to the unpleasant aroma emanating from spoiled meat, neighbors called the police and then conflicts occurred between the foreman and law enforcement officers. After incidents with police officers, Soutine began soaking carcasses in formaldehyde.

$60.00 million. Kazimir Malevich. Suprematist composition

Malevich’s painting “Suprematist Composition” is practically a record holder among Russian paintings. The fate of this work is not easy. Initially, the painting visited exhibitions in Europe, then it was kept by the architect Hugo Goering and the Amsterdam Museum.

Only 17 years later, after numerous trials, the painting was returned to Malevich’s descendants. However, it was soon sold for a fabulous sum of $60 million.

$86.88 million. Mark Rothko. Orange, red, yellow

The most expensive painting is the painting “Orange, Red, Yellow” by the mysterious contemporary artist Mark Rothko. His paintings are in many famous museums of modern art.

In 2012, at Christie’s auction, this work from 1961 was sold for $86.88 million. This painting is the most expensive work by an artist of Russian origin, which was auctioned at a public auction in the post-war period.

At the beginning of December 2011, new price records were set at Russian auctions in London. Summing up the year, we have compiled a list of the most expensive works by Russian artists based on the results of auction sales.

33 most expensive places. Source: 33 most expensive places.

According to the ratings, the most expensive Russian artist is Mark Rothko. His White Center (1950), sold for 72.8 million dollars, in addition, ranks 12th in the list of the most expensive paintings in the world in general. However, Rothko was Jewish, born in Latvia and left Russia at the age of 10. Is it fair?with such a stretch chase for records? Therefore, we crossed Rothko, like other emigrants who left Russia without yet becoming artists (for example, Tamara de Lempicki and Chaim Soutine), from the list.

No. 1. Kazimir Malevich - $60 million.

The author of “Black Square” is too important a person for his works to be often found on the open market. So this painting got to auction in a very difficult way. In 1927, Malevich, planning to organize an exhibition, brought almost a hundred works from his Leningrad workshop to Berlin. However, he was urgently recalled to his homeland, and he left them in the custody of the architect Hugo Hering. He saved the paintings during the difficult years of the fascist dictatorship, when they could well have been destroyed as “degenerate art,” and in 1958, after Malevich’s death, he sold them to the State Stedelek Museum (Holland).

At the beginning of the 21st century, a group of Malevich’s heirs, almost forty people, began legal proceedings - because Hering was not the legal owner of the paintings. As a result, the museum gave them this painting, and will give them four more, which will certainly cause a sensation at some auction. After all, Malevich is one of the most forged artists in the world, and the provenance of the paintings from the Stedelek Museum is impeccable. And in January 2012, the heirs received another painting from that Berlin exhibition, taking it away from the Swiss museum.

No. 2. Wassily Kandinsky - $22.9 million.

The auction price of a work is influenced by its reputation. This is not only a big name for the artist, but also “provenance” (origin). An item from a famous private collection or a good museum is always worth more than a work from an anonymous collection. “Fugue” comes from the famous Guggenheim Museum: one day director Thomas Krenz removed Kandinsky, a painting by Chagall and Modigliani from the museum collections, and put them up for sale. For some reason, the museum used the money received to purchase a collection of 200 works by American conceptualists. Krenz was condemned for a very long time for this decision.

This painting by the father of abstract art is curious because it set a record back in 1990, when the auction rooms of London and New York had not yet been filled with reckless Russian buyers. Thanks to this, by the way, it did not disappear into some very private collection in a luxurious mansion, but is on permanent display in the private Beyeler Museum in Switzerland, where anyone can see it. A rare opportunity for such a purchase!

No. 3. Alexey Yavlensky - £9.43 million

An unknown buyer paid approximately $18.5 million for a portrait depicting a girl from a village near Munich. Shokko is not a name, but a nickname. Every time the model came to the artist’s studio, she asked for a cup of hot chocolate. So “Shokko” took root after her.

The sold painting is part of his famous cycle “Race”, depicting the domestic peasantry of the first quarter of the twentieth century. And, really, she portrays her with such faces that it’s scary to watch. Here, in the image of a shepherd, the peasant poet Nikolai Klyuev, the forerunner of Yesenin, appears. Among his poems are the following: “In the heat of the day, the scarlet flower has become defoliated and faded - The daring light of a child is far from the sweetheart.”

No. 19. Konstantin Makovsky - £2.03 million

Makovsky is a salon painter, famous for the huge number of hawthorn heads in kokoshniks and sundresses, as well as for the painting “Children running from a thunderstorm”, which at one time was constantly printed on gift boxes of chocolates. His sweet historical paintings are in steady demand among Russian buyers.

The theme of this painting- Old Russian "kiss ritual" Noble women in Ancient Rus' were not allowed to leave the women's quarters, and only for the sake of honored guests could they come out, bring a glass and (the most pleasant part) allow themselves to be kissed. Pay attention to the painting hanging on the wall: this is an image of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, one of the first equestrian portraits to appear in Rus'. Its composition, although it was blatantly copied from a European model, was considered unusually innovative and even shocking for that time.

No. 20. Svyatoslav Roerich - $2.99 ​​million

The son of Nicholas Roerich left Russia as a teenager. Lived in England, USA, India. Like his father, he was interested in Eastern philosophy. Like his father, he painted many paintings on Indian themes. His father generally occupied a huge place in his life - he painted more than thirty portraits of him. This painting was created in India, where the clan settled in the middle of the century. Paintings by Svyatoslav Roerich rarely appear at auctions, and in Moscow, works of the famous dynasty can be seen in the halls of the Museum of the East, to which the authors donated them, as well as in the International Center of the Roerichs, which is located in a luxurious noble estate right behind the Pushkin Museum. Both museums do not really like each other: the Museum of the East lays claim to both the building and the collections of the Roerich Center.

No. 21. Ivan Shishkin - £1.87 million

The main Russian landscape painter spent three summers in a row on Valaam and left many images of this area. This work is a little gloomy and does not look like classic Shishkin. But this is explained by the fact that the painting dates back to his early period, when he had not found his style and was strongly influenced by the Düsseldorf school of landscape, in which he studied.

We already mentioned this Düsseldorf school above, in the recipe for fake Aivazovsky. " Shishkins" are made according to the same scheme, for example, in 2004 at Sotheby's exhibited “Landscape with a Stream” from the Düsseldorf period of the painter. It was estimated at $1 million and was confirmed by an examination of the Tretyakov Gallery. An hour before the sale, the lot was withdrawn - it turned out to be a painting by another student of this school, the Dutchman Marinus Adrian Koekkoek, purchased in Sweden for 65 thousand dollars.

No. 22. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - £1.83m

A portrait of a boy holding an icon of the Virgin Mary was found in a private collection in Chicago. After it was handed over to the auction house, experts began research to try to establish its origins. It turned out that the painting was at exhibitions in 1922 and 1932. In the 1930s, the artist’s works traveled around the States as part of an exhibition of Russian art. Perhaps it was then that the owners acquired this painting.

Notice the empty space on the wall behind the boy. At first the author thought of painting a window with a green landscape there. This would balance the picture both in composition and colors - the grass would echo the green tunic of the Mother of God (by the way, according to the canon it should be blue). Why Petrov-Vodkin painted over the window is unknown.

No. 23. Nicholas Roerich - £1.76 million

Before visiting Shambhala and starting to correspond with the Dalai Lama, Nicholas Roerich quite successfully specialized in the ancient Russian theme and even made ballet sketches for Russian Seasons. The lot sold belongs to this period. The scene depicted is a miraculous phenomenon over the water, which is observed by a Russian monk, most likely Sergius of Radonezh. It is curious that the painting was painted in the same year as another vision of Sergius (then the youth Bartholomew), appearing in our list above. The stylistic difference is colossal.

Roerich painted many paintings and the lion's share of them in India. He donated several pieces to the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research. Recently two of them, Himalayas, Kanchenjunga and Sunset, Kashmir ", appeared at auction in London. Only then did the junior researchers of the institute notice that they had been robbed. In January 2011, the Indians applied to a London court for permission to investigate this crime in England. The interest of thieves in Roerich’s heritage is understandable, because there is a demand.

No. 24. Lyubov Popova - £1.7 million

Lyubov Popova died young, so she did not manage to become famous like another Amazon of the avant-garde, Natalya Goncharova. And her legacy is smaller - so it’s difficult to find her work for sale. After her death, a detailed inventory of the paintings was compiled. For many years this still life was known only from a black and white reproduction, until it surfaced in a private collection, turning out to be the artist’s most significant work in private hands. Pay attention to the Zhostovo tray - perhaps this is a hint of Popova’s taste for folk crafts. She came from the family of an Ivanovo merchant who dealt in textiles, and she herself created many sketches of propaganda textiles based on Russian traditions.

No. 25. Aristarkh Lentulov - £1.7 million

Lentulov entered the history of the Russian avant-garde with his memorable image of St. Basil's Cathedral - either cubism or a patchwork quilt. In this landscape he tries to split space according to a similar principle, but it doesn’t turn out as exciting. Actually, that's why "St. Basil the Blessed""in the Tretyakov Gallery, and this painting- on the art market. After all, museum workers once had the opportunity to skim the cream.

No. 26. Alexey Bogolyubov - £1.58 million

The sale of this little-known artist, albeit the favorite landscape painter of Tsar Alexander III, for such crazy money is a symptom of the market frenzy on the eve of the 2008 crisis. At that time, Russian collectors were ready to buy even minor masters. Moreover, first-class artists are rarely sold.

Perhaps this painting was sent as a gift to some official: it has a suitable subject, because the Cathedral of Christ the Savior has long ceased to be just a church, and has become a symbol. And a flattering origin - the painting was kept in the royal palace. Pay attention to the details: the brick Kremlin tower is covered with white plaster, and the hill inside the Kremlin is completely undeveloped. Well, why bother trying? In the 1870s, the capital was St. Petersburg, not Moscow, and the Kremlin was not a residence.

No. 27. Isaac Levitan - £1.56 million

Completely atypical for Levitan, the work was sold at the same auction as Bogolyubov’s painting, but it turned out to be cheaper. This is connected, of course, with the fact that the picture does not look like Levitan " Its authorship, however, is indisputable; a similar plot is in the Dnepropetrovsk Museum. 40 thousand light bulbs, with which the Kremlin was decorated, were lit in honor of the coronation of Nicholas II. In a few days the Khodynka disaster will happen.

No. 28. Arkhip Kuindzhi - $3 million.

The famous landscape painter painted three similar paintings. The first is in the Tretyakov Gallery, the third is in the State Museum of Belarus. The second, presented at the auction, was intended for Prince Pavel Pavlovich Demidov-San Donato. This representative of the famous Ural dynasty lived in a villa near Florence. In general, the Demidovs, having become Italian princes, had fun as best they could. For example, Paul's uncle, from whom he inherited the princely title, was so rich and noble that he married Napoleon Bonaparte's niece, and one day he whipped her in a bad mood. The poor lady had a hard time getting a divorce. The painting, however, did not reach Demidov; it was acquired by the Ukrainian sugar factory Tereshchenko.

No. 29. Konstantin Korovin - £1.497 million

Impressionists characterized by a very “light”, sweeping writing style. Korovin is the main Russian impressionist. It is very popular among scammers; According to rumors, the number of its fakes at auctions reaches 80%. If a painting from a private collection was exhibited at the artist’s personal exhibition in a famous state museum, then its reputation is strengthened, and at the next auction it costs much more. In 2012, the Tretyakov Gallery is planning a large-scale exhibition of Korovin. Maybe there will be works from private collections. This paragraph is an example of manipulation of the reader’s consciousness by listing facts that do not have a direct logical connection with each other.

• Please note that from March 26 to August 12, 2012, the Tretyakov Gallery promises to organizeKorovin exhibition . Read more about the biography of the most charming of the Silver Age artists in our review opening days of the State Tretyakov Gallery in 2012.

No. 30. Yuri Annenkov - $2.26 million.

Annenkov managed to emigrate in 1924 and made a good career in the West. For example, in 1954 he was nominated for an Oscar as costume designer for the film "Madame de..." His early Soviet portraits are best known- the faces are cubist, faceted, but completely recognizable. For example, he repeatedly drew Leon Trotsky in this way - and even repeated the drawing many years later from memory, when the Times magazine wanted to decorate the cover with it.

The character depicted in the record-breaking portrait is the writer Tikhonov-Serebrov. He entered the history of Russian literature mainly through his close friendship with. So close that, according to dirty rumors, the artist’s wife Varvara Shaikevich even gave birth to a daughter from the great proletarian writer. It’s not very noticeable in the reproduction, but the portrait was made using the collage technique: glass and plaster are placed on top of a layer of oil paint, and even a real doorbell is attached.

No. 31. Lev Lagorio - £1.47 million

Another minor landscape painter, for some reason sold for a record price. One of the indicators of the success of the auction is exceeding the estimate (“estimate”) - the minimum price that the auction house experts have set for the lot. The estimate for this landscape was 300-400 thousand pounds, but it was sold for 4 times more expensive. As one London auctioneer said: “happiness is when two Russian oligarchs compete for the same thing."

No. 32. Viktor Vasnetsov - £1.1 million

Bogatyrs became a calling card back in the 1870s. He returns to his star theme, like other veterans of Russian painting, during the years of the young Soviet republic - both for financial reasons and to feel in demand again. This picture is the author's repetition “Ilya Muromets” (1915), which is kept in the House-Museum of the artist (on Prospekt Mira).

No. 33. Erik Bulatov - £1.084 million

The second living artist on our list (he also said that the best way for an artist to raise prices for his work is to die). , by the way, this is a Soviet Warhol, underground and anti-communist. He worked in the genre of social art, which was created by the Soviet underground, as our version of pop art. “Glory to the CPSU” is one of the artist’s most famous works. According to his own explanations, the letters here symbolize a lattice blocking the sky, that is, freedom, from us.

Bonus: Zinaida Serebryakova - £1.07 million

Serebryakova loved to paint nude women, self-portraits and her four children. This ideal feminist world is harmonious and calm, which cannot be said about the life of the artist herself, who barely escaped from Russia after the revolution and spent a lot of effort to get her children out of there.

“Nude” is not an oil painting, but a pastel drawing. This is the most expensive Russian drawing. Such a high amount paid for the graphics is comparable to the prices for Impressionist drawings and caused great surprise at Sotheby's, which started the auction with 150 thousand pounds sterling and received a million.

The list is compiled based on prices indicated on the official websites of auction houses. This price is made up of the net price (as stated when the hammer comes down), and« buyer's premium (additional percentage of the auction house). Other sources may indicate "pure» price. The dollar to pound exchange rate often fluctuates, so British and American lots are located relative to each other with approximate accuracy (we are not Forbes).

Additions and corrections to our list are welcome.