Most Expensive Art Ever Sold At Auction

Following the sale last week at Sotheby's of a Giacometti sculpture for a record-setting $104.3 million,  the Economist magazine has published a chart of the most expensive artworks ever sold at auction (ranked by actual selling price and on an inflation adjusted basis) that you can view HERE.  


I was surprised, at first glance, by two aspects of this list. While I knew all but one of the artists listed, I recognized only a couple of the 15 works by name.  But I suppose that reflects the fact that many of the most famous works by these artists are in museums now and so don't come up for private sale frequently (if at all).  I was also surprised that 13 of these 15 listed sales occurred in roughly the last 10 years.  Only two sales were older than that (both from 1990). But that's due to rapid price inflation in the art market generally over the last 25 years or so, I suppose.