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The Most Expensive Paintings Sold at Auction in 2025

  • Writer: Maksym Horpynych
    Maksym Horpynych
  • Jan 5
  • 2 min read


The 2025 auction season reaffirmed the enduring power of museum-caliber masterpieces, with blue-chip works achieving extraordinary results across the world’s leading auction houses.


  1. Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914–1916) — Sotheby’s, $236.4 million

  2. Gustav Klimt, Flowering Meadow (1908) — Sotheby’s, $86 million

  3. Gustav Klimt, Forest Slope in Unterach am Attersee (1916) — Sotheby’s, $68.3 million

  4. Vincent van Gogh, Still Life with Parisian Novels and Roses in a Glass (1888) — Sotheby’s, $62.7 million

  5. Mark Rothko, No. 31 (Yellow Band) (1958) — Christie’s, $62.2 million

  6. Frida Kahlo, The Dream (The Bed) (1940) — Sotheby’s, $54.7 million

  7. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Crowns (Peso Neto) (1981) — Sotheby’s, $48.3 million

  8. Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Bluish Gray, Black, Yellow, and Blue (1922) — Christie’s, $47.6 million

  9. Pablo Picasso, The Lecture (Marie-Thérèse) (1932) — Christie’s, $45.5 million

  10. Claude Monet, Water Lilies (1907) — Christie’s, $45.5 million


Market Overview


The combined total of the ten highest-priced lots reached $757 million, marking the strongest performance since 2022. This exceptional result underscores a renewed confidence at the very top of the art market, driven by rarity, impeccable provenance, and institutional-grade quality.

A significant share of this success belongs to the two dominant forces of the global auction world — Christie’s and Sotheby’s — whose evening sales once again proved to be the ultimate stage for trophy works.


The year can confidently be described as the triumph of Gustav Klimt. With three masterpieces leading the rankings, his market demonstrated both depth and resilience, confirming Klimt’s position among the most coveted names in early modern art.


Equally historic was the new auction record for a female artist: Frida Kahlo, whose result redefined the upper boundary for works by women artists and signaled a lasting recalibration of the canon at the highest market level.

 
 
 

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