The overflow crowd at Christie’s auction house broke into applause when the gavel fell on the blockbuster art sale of the decade. On the evening of November 15, 2017, a little-known Saudi prince, bidding over the phone, agreed to pay $450.3 million for “Salvator Mundi,” a 500-year-old portrait of a solemn Jesus Christ hyped by Christie’s as the “The Last da Vinci.”
2019 – “Mueles” | Claude Monet | $110.7 million | Sotheby’s
2018 -“Nu couché (Sur le côté gauche)” | Amedeo Modigliani | $157.2 million | Sotheby’s
2017 – “Salvator Mundi” | Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci | $450.3 million | Christie’s
2016 – “Adele Bloch-Bauer II” | Gustav Klimt | $150 million | Private sale. Oprah Winfrey to a Chinese buyer
2015 – “Interchange” | Willem de Kooning | $300 million | Private sale. David Geffen to Ken Griffin
2014 – “Nafea Faa Ipoipo? (When Will You Marry?)” | Paul Gauguin | $210 million | Private sale. Rudolf Staechelin to a Qatari buyer
2013 – “Le Rêve” | Pablo Picasso | $155 million | Private sale . Steve Wynn to Steven Cohen
2012 – “Wasserschlangen II” | Gustav Klimt | $183.8 million | Private sale. Yves Bouvier to Dmitry Rybolovlev
2011 – “The Card Players” | Paul Cézanne | $250 million | Private sale. Estate of George Embiricos to Qatar
2010 – “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” | Pablo Picasso | $106.5 million | Christie’s
