{"id":657125,"date":"2026-10-26T01:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/657125\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T01:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:04:15","slug":"the-10-most-expensive-picasso-paintings-ever-sold-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/657125\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Most Expensive Picasso Paintings Ever Sold, Ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2004, a Picasso<\/a> became the first artwork ever to sell at auction for more than $100 million, and the man born in M\u00e1laga on October 25, 1881, has been rewriting the record books ever since. Mental Floss has ranked the most expensive paintings ever sold<\/a> across every artist; this list sticks to Picasso and to public auctions where the houses publish the final number. <\/p>\n

These prices include the buyer\u2019s premium and are in dollars on the day of the sale, and private deals, like the reported $155 million hedge fund manager Steve Cohen paid for Le R\u00eave in 2013, stay off the board. With that, one name keeps coming up: Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Walter, the young woman Picasso painted obsessively in the early 1930s, who sits for five of the ten, four of which date from 1932.<\/p>\n

Here are the 10 most expensive Picasso paintings ever sold. <\/p>\n

Les Femmes d\u2019Alger (Version \u2018O\u2019) (1955)<\/a>Femme \u00e0 la montre (1932)<\/a>Fillette \u00e0 la corbeille fleurie (1905)<\/a>Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932)<\/a>Gar\u00e7on \u00e0 la pipe (1905)<\/a>Femme assise pr\u00e8s d\u2019une fen\u00eatre (Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se) (1932)<\/a>Dora Maar au chat (1941)<\/a>Femme au b\u00e9ret et \u00e0 la robe quadrill\u00e9e (Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Walter) (1937)<\/a>Femme nue couch\u00e9e (1932)<\/a>La Gommeuse (1901)<\/a>Les Femmes d\u2019Alger (Version \u2018O\u2019) (1955)\"BRITAIN-ART-AUCTION-PICASSO\"<\/p>\n

BRITAIN-ART-AUCTION-PICASSO | JUSTIN TALLIS\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

The top spot belongs to the last of 15 variations<\/a> Picasso painted after Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix\u2019s Women of Algiers<\/a>. It sold at Christie\u2019s in New York on May 11, 2015, for $179,365,000, and when the bidding reached $152 million, auctioneer Jussi Pylkk\u00e4nen told the room, \u201cWe\u2019re in new territory.\u201d The collector Victor Ganz had offered to buy the whole series in 1956 for $212,500, and the painting last sold in 1997 for $31.9 million<\/a>. Christie\u2019s didn\u2019t name the buyer, though it was reportedly Qatar\u2019s former prime minister, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. Mental Floss has more on the painting itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Femme \u00e0 la montre (1932)\"Sotheby's<\/p>\n

Sotheby’s London Contemporary Frieze Art Sales & Highlights from The Fisher Landau Collection | Tristan Fewings\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se makes her first appearance on the list in this portrait, which sold at Sotheby\u2019s in New York on November 8, 2023, for $139.4 million<\/a>, the most valuable artwork sold at auction that year. It came from the collection of Emily Fisher Landau<\/a>, who bought it from Pace Gallery in 1968 and kept it for 55 years; she died in March 2023 at the age of 102. Bidding opened at $95 million, and three bidders on the phone fought over it.<\/p>\n

Fillette \u00e0 la corbeille fleurie (1905)\"Auction<\/p>\n

Auction of the Art Collection of David Rockefeller | picture alliance\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

This Rose Period painting of a young girl <\/a>holding a basket of flowers sold at Christie\u2019s in New York on May 8, 2018, for $115 million, as part of the auction of Peggy and David Rockefeller\u2019s collection. Its first owners were Leo and Gertrude Stein<\/a>, who bought it the year Picasso painted it. When Stein\u2019s estate sold it in 1968, it went to a Museum of Modern Art syndicate that included Rockefeller.<\/p>\n

Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932)\"Solo<\/p>\n

Solo Picasso Exhibition Previews At The Tate Modern | Leon Neal\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s billed it as the \u201clost\u201d 1932 Picasso, which wasn\u2019t much of an exaggeration<\/a>: the painting had been shown in public exactly once, in 1961. Sidney Brody and his wife bought it from Picasso\u2019s dealer, Paul Rosenberg, in 1950 for $17,000, and on May 4, 2010, it sold at Christie\u2019s in New York for $106,482,500. Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se is the model.<\/p>\n

Gar\u00e7on \u00e0 la pipe (1905)<\/p>\n

The painting<\/a> that broke the $100 million barrier is the second Rose Period canvas on the list. It sold at Sotheby\u2019s in New York on May 5, 2004, for $104,168,000, from the Whitney family\u2019s<\/a> collection, which had paid about $30,000 for it in 1950. Adjusted for inflation, that price comes to about $185 million today<\/a>, enough to move it to second place. The buyer was never announced, but was believed to be Guido Barilla, of the pasta company.<\/p>\n

Femme assise pr\u00e8s d\u2019une fen\u00eatre (Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se) (1932)\"Christie's<\/p>\n

Christie’s New York Evening Sales Preview | Cindy Ord\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

This one more than doubled in price in less than a decade: it had sold in London<\/a> eight years earlier for \u00a328.6 million, about $45 million. At Christie\u2019s in New York on May 13, 2021, bidding ran for 19 minutes before it went to an online bidder in California for $103.4 million, against an estimate of around $55 million.<\/p>\n

Dora Maar au chat (1941)\"Gallery<\/p>\n

Gallery goers view Pablo Picasso’s painting “Dora Maar au Ch | Bloomberg\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

The photographer Dora Maar<\/a>, who followed Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se as Picasso\u2019s muse, gets her turn here. The portrait sold at Sotheby\u2019s in New York on May 3, 2006, for $95,216,000, which at the time made it the second most expensive painting ever sold at auction. The winning bidder in the room was later reported to be buying for the Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who went on to become his country\u2019s prime minister.<\/p>\n

Femme au b\u00e9ret et \u00e0 la robe quadrill\u00e9e (Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Walter) (1937)\"TOPSHOT-HONG<\/p>\n

TOPSHOT-HONG KONG-ART | ANTHONY WALLACE\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

Picasso painted this portrait<\/a> in the months after Guernica, and it stayed out of the auction room until Sotheby\u2019s sold it in London in February 2018 for \u00a349.8 million, or $69.2 million. That set the record for any painting sold at auction in Europe, and three bidders competed for it.<\/p>\n

Femme nue couch\u00e9e (1932)\"Sotheby's<\/p>\n

Sotheby’s New York Marquee Evening Sales Press Preview | Alexi Rosenfeld\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se appears one more time, painted as a kind of sea creature, inspired by her love of swimming. The painting had never been to auction before it sold at Sotheby\u2019s in New York on May 17, 2022, for $67.5 million<\/a>, the most paid for a Picasso that year. The seller<\/a> was reportedly Cohen, who had bought it from Picasso\u2019s heirs in 2008.<\/p>\n

La Gommeuse (1901)\"BRITAIN-ART-AUCTION\"<\/p>\n

BRITAIN-ART-AUCTION | JUSTIN TALLIS\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

The only Blue Period painting on the list has a secret <\/a>on the back: during conservation in 2000, a hidden caricature of Picasso\u2019s friend Pere Ma\u00f1ach turned up on the reverse of the canvas. Bill Koch bought the painting for $3 million in 1984, and it sold at Sotheby\u2019s in New York on November 5, 2015, for $67,450,000. It edged out Buste de femme (Femme \u00e0 la r\u00e9sille<\/a>), a 1938 portrait of Dora Maar that had sold six months earlier, the same night as Les Femmes d\u2019Alger, for about $67.4 million.<\/p>\n

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