The World’s Most Expensive Paintings (20 pics)

Although many famous pictures are held in museums and are thus literally priceless, those which are sold at the auctions may have truly mind-boggling price tags. Are they worth it? You decide.

Pablo Picasso – Femme aux Bras Croisés (Woman with Folded Arms), 1902

Sold for $55 million in 2000

1

Vincent van Gogh – A Wheatfield with Cypresses, 1889

Sold for $57 million in 1993

2

Kazimir Malevich – Suprematist Composition, 1916

Sold for $60 million in 2008

3

Paul Cézanne – Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier, 1894

Sold for $60.5 million in 1999

4

Willem de Kooning – Police Gazette, 1955

Sold for $63.5 in 2006

5

Vincent van Gogh – Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe (Self-portrait without beard), 1889

Sold for $71.5 million in 1998

6

Andy Warhol – Green Car Crash, 1963

Sold for $71.7 million in 2007

7

Mark Rothko –White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950

Sold for $72.8 million in 2007

8

Peter Paul Rubens – Massacre of the Innocents, 1611

Sold for $76.7 million in 2002

9

Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Bal du moulin de la Galette (Dance at Le moulin de la Galette), 1876

Sold for $78.1 million in 1990

10

Jasper Johns – False Start, 1959

Sold for $80 million in 2006

11

Claude Monet – Le Bassin aux Nymphéas (Water Lily Pond), 1919

Sold for $80.5 million in 2008

12

Vincent van Gogh – Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890

Sold for $82.5 million in 1990

13

Francis Bacon – Triptych, 1976

Sold for $86.3 million in 2008

14

Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912

Sold for $87.9 million in 2006

15

Pablo Picasso – Dora Maar au Chat (Dora Maar with Cat), 1941

Sold for $95.2 in 2006

16

Pablo Picasso – Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe), 1905

Sold for $104.2 million in 2004

17

Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907

Sold for $135 million in 2006

18

Willem de Kooning – Woman III, 1953

Sold for $137.5 million in 2006

19

Jackson Pollock – No. 5, 1948

Sold for $140 million in 2006

20