List of most expensive artworks by living artists

The highest known price paid for an artwork by a living artist was for Jasper Johns's 1958 painting Flag. Its 2010 private sale price was estimated to be about US$110 million ($159 million in 2024 dollars).^[1]

All-time

This is a list of highest prices ever paid—at auction or private sale—for an artwork by an artist living at time of sale.

Adjusted price (in millions of USD)	Original price (in millions of USD)	Work	Artist	Date	Venue	Ref.
159	110	Flag	Jasper Johns	2010	Private sale	[1]
112	91.1	Rabbit	Jeff Koons	May 2019	Christie's	[2][3]
113	90.3	Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)	David Hockney	November 2018	Christie's	[4]
125	80	False Start	Jasper Johns	October 2006	Private sale	[5]
	68.3	Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half	Ed Ruscha	November 2024	Christie's[6]
62	62	The Journey of Humanity	Sacha Jafri	March 2021	Humanity Inspired Royal Charity Auction, Dubai[note 1]	[7][8]
79	58.4	Balloon Dog (Orange)	Jeff Koons	November 2013	Christie's	[9]

Progressive auction sales records

This is a list of progressive records of the highest price ever paid at auction for the work of an artist who was living at time of sale. As a progressive record listing, it only lists auctions records that topple the previous best. The current record price is US$91 million for Jeff Koons's 1986 sculpture, Rabbit, set in 2019. The current record price for a painting is $90 million for David Hockney's 1972 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), set the prior year.

Adjusted price (in millions of USD)	Original price (in millions of USD)	Work	Artist	Date	Auction house	Ref.
91.82	91.1	Rabbit	Jeff Koons	May 2019	Christie's	[2][3]
92.48	90.3	Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)	David Hockney	November 2018	Christie's	[4]
64.68	58.4	Balloon Dog (Orange)	Jeff Koons	November 2013	Christie's	[9]
41.11	37.1	Domplatz, Mailand	Gerhard Richter	May 2013	Sotheby's	[10]
38.16	34.2	Abstraktes Bild (809-4) (1994)	Gerhard Richter	October 2012	Sotheby's	[11]
40.03	33.6	Benefits Supervisor Sleeping	Lucian Freud	May 2008	Christie's	[12]
28.98	23.6	Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold)	Jeff Koons	November 2007	Sotheby's	[13]
23.91	19.3	Lullaby Spring	Damien Hirst	June 2007	Sotheby's	[14]
36.48	17	False Start	Jasper Johns	November 1988	Sotheby's	[15]
15.02	7	White Flag	Jasper Johns	November 1988	Christie's	[16]
9.18	4.18	Diver	Jasper Johns	May 1988	Christie's	[17]
8.28	3.63 (tied)	Pink Lady	Willem de Kooning	May 1987	Sotheby's	[18]
8.49	3.63 (tied)	Out the Window	Jasper Johns	November 1986	Sotheby's	[19]
3.23	1.2	Two Women	Willem de Kooning	May 1982	Christie's	[20]
2.19	0.8	L'Enigme du Desir/Ma Mere, Ma Mere, Ma Mere	Salvador Dalí	March 1982	Christie's	[21]
4.13	0.53	Mother and Child	Pablo Picasso	April 1967	Sotheby's	[22][23]
1.88	0.22	Death of Harlequin/Woman in a Garden	Pablo Picasso	1962	Sotheby's	[24][25]
1.34	0.15 (tied)	La Belle Hollandaise	Pablo Picasso	May 1959	Sotheby's	[26][27]
1.34	0.15 (tied)	Mother and Child	Pablo Picasso	November 1958	Sotheby's	[28]
	0.066	Friedland, 1807	Ernest Meissonier	March 1887	Stewart estate sale	[29][30]
	0.045	Les Communiantes	Jules Breton	May 1886	Mary J. Morgan estate sale	[31][32]

Private sales

• Jasper Johns's 1958 Flag painting was sold by Steven A. Cohen to Jean-Christophe Castelli for ca $110 million in 2010 ($159 million in 2024 dollars).^[1]
• Damien Hirst's For the Love of God (2007), composed of diamond and platinum, was privately acquired by a consortium, which included the artist himself, in August 2007 for $100 million – equivalent to approximately $141 million when adjusted for inflation to 2022 values. ^[14]
• Another Jasper Johns painting, False Start (1959), was sold by Kenneth C. Griffin to David Geffen on October 12, 2006, for a then record $80 million.($125 million in 2024 dollars)^[33]
• The Whitney Museum of American Art privately^[34] purchased Jasper Johns's Three Flags in 1980 for $1 million ($4 million in 2024 dollars), then a record price for a living artist.^[35][36]
• In 1967, citizens of Basel, Switzerland, raised nearly $2 million to buy two Picasso paintings for their Kunstmuseum Basel.^[37]
• In 1890, Alfred Chauchard [fr], owner of the Grands Magasins du Louvre department store, purchased Ernest Meissonier's 1814 The Campaign of France from a banker for 850,000 Fr (US$162,000 in 1890; equivalent to $6 million in 2024), the highest price for a painting by an artist alive or dead.^[38]

See also

• List of most expensive paintings
• List of most expensive sculptures
• List of most expensive photographs
• List of most expensive books and manuscripts
• List of most expensive non-fungible tokens