FX.co ★ Top 10 most expensive paintings in the world

It is difficult to really appreciate these masterpieces of world painting, almost all of the paintings below are created in a unique innovative technique, so their value will only grow with time. Embarrassment, perplexity, doubt in the adequacy of the artist - this is not the whole range of emotions experienced by the unsophisticated spectator. The prices are given in view of the auction commission.

No. 5, Jackson Pollock – $140,000,000

The art of Jackson Pollock, an ardent admirer of Pablo Picasso, had a huge impact on the art of the second half of the 20th century becoming an expression of the radical and innovative moods of the younger generation of American nonconformist artists.

The artistic effect of spontaneity in his paintings was achieved by splashing aluminum paint or factory varnishes on a canvas placed on the floor and drawing a dense web with the help of multidirectional rope strikes.

In 2006, his painting No. 5 was sold for $140 million.

Masterpiece, Roy Lichtenstein – $165,000,000

The creative method of Roy Lichtenstein can be described as an imitation of the printing press whose richness of the palette is reduced to several typographic colors. His paintings became the most accurate "mirror of a one-time society" (as the ideologists of pop art described their art).

The transformation of the product into an art object is demonstrated in his most famous work, Masterpiece, which went under the hammer for $150 million, though it seems an ordinary comics to the majority of the public.

Nu Couche, Amedeo Modigliani – $170,400,000

Nu Couche by Amedeo Modigliani is a portrait of his wife who died immediately after the death of the artist in 1920. The canvas was sold in November 2015 at Christie's auction to Chinese billionaire Liu Yiquan.

Most art connoisseurs consider a heroine of the painting as a sensual, aroused woman in her prime who is not afraid to give and demand physical pleasure.

Les Femmes d'Alger, Picasso – $179,400,000

The painting by Pablo Picasso was sold at Christie's auction in New York in 2015, 11 minutes after the start of the auction. This painting is the culmination of a series of 15 works on Women of Algiers completed by Picasso, inspired by the 19th century Spanish great Eugene Delacroix.

No:6 (Violet, Green and Red), Mark Rothko – $186,000,000

The authorship and genius of Mark Rothko's style were proved in the Supreme Court of America by his descendants, although the artist himself did not like to consider himself a part of a fashionable at that time group of abstractionists. The author did not give a distinct title to most of his paintings giving viewers the opportunity to fantasize about what is depicted in the picture - just horizontal stripes of bright colors or something more.

As a result of court proceedings, most of the paintings sold by Rothko during his lifetime for a pittance were returned to the heirs, and the name of the artist entered the list of the ten most talented artists of the 20th century.

No. 17A, 1948, Jackson Pollock – $200,000,000

The dominant subconscious of Jackson Pollock, an ideologue and leader of abstract expressionism, is emphasized by the technique of dripping paint in his painting No. 17A. In 2015, this canvas of the founder of the "action painting" was sold for an astronomical sum to the American billionaire Kenneth Griffin.

The Card Players, Paul Cezanne – $250,000,000

Restrained in emotions Cezanne created a series of paintings The Card Players differing in size and number of players depicted. The most "gloomy" version made a record at the auction of 2011.The royal family of Qatar bought this canvas for a whopping $250 million. Other paintings belong to the art museums in Europe and America.

When Will You Marry?, Paul Gauguin – $210,000,000

In February 2015, a new record was broken when the organization Qatar Museums, engaged in the acquisition of works of art for the museums of the emirate, gave for the painting of Gauguin $300 million. At the time of the auction, the canvas belonged to the Swiss collector Rudolf Shtekelin, before that, more than 50 years it was exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts of the city of Basel, Switzerland.

Interchange, Willem de Kooning – $300,000,000

The works of Willem de Kooning, who belonged to the school of abstract expressionism, participated in thousands of exhibitions when the artist was still alive. Now they are exhibited in many art galleries around the world. Perhaps his painting Interchange is puzzling with its rather strange technique of execution, resembling an oil painting in all directions, but there are those who think differently, otherwise how to explain the fact that in 2016 it was sold for a decent amount.

Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci – $450,300,000

Despite the high painting skills seen in some details of the image of Christ, in the world community there is no common position about who created this canvas, Leonardo da Vinci himself or one of his disciples.

In 2017, Christie's auction house, which attracted the attention of the most affluent public, managed to raise the starting price of the picture Salvator Mundi, equal to a modest $100 million, to a fabulous $400 million, largely due to the positioning of the lot as Leonardo's last work left in private hands. The identity of the new owner of the masterpiece is kept secret.