Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but paintings by big-name artists always lead the pack when it comes to record-breaking art sales. Case in point: Pablo Picasso's "Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O)" recently became the most expensive painting ever to sell at auction, with a whopping $179.4 million purchase price.
For a global glimpse of the world's priciest paintings, Howmuch.net created these artful maps.
North America
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Andy Warhol is the artist behind North America's highest-priced painting. The Pittsburgh-born visionary who fathered the Pop Art movement painted a piece entitled "Silver Car Crash," which was last sold for $105.4 million.
Behind Warhol, Canadian artist Lawren Stewart Harris' "The Old Tree Stump, Lake Superior" is valued at $3.3 million; Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's "Trovador" is worth $7.2 million; and Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam's "ídolo (Oya/Divinité de l’air et de la mort)" was last sold for $4.5 million.
Europe
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Europe has bragging rights for the world's most expensive painting ever sold at auction, Picasso's "Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O)." Second to Picasso, Renaissance artist Francis Bacon's "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" sold for a then-world record $142.4 million in 2013. The rest of Europe's top five priciest paintings belong to Norwegian artist Edward Munch's haunting "The Scream," Austrian artist Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II," and Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait du Dr. Gachet."
Other notable works include France’s Claude Monet's "Le Bassin aux Nymphéas," Peter Paul Rubens' "Massacre of the Innocents" and Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani’s "Nu assis sur un divan (La belle romaine)."
Asia
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Although technically not in Asia, Russian artist Kasimir Severinovich Malevich’s "Suprematist Composition" is valued at $60 million. Chinese painter Zhanf Daqian painted "Lotus and Mandarin Ducks," now worth about $24.5 million. "Deer Hunt," by Indonesian painter Raden Saleh, is worth about $7.5 million today.
Australia
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The painting titled "Armchair" by Australian artist Brett Whiteley sold for $3.9 million in 2013, a record for an Australian piece of art.
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Chilean artist Roberto Matta painted the most expensive piece of South American art with "La Révolte des Contraires," now worth $5 million; Colombian artist Fernando Botero's "The Musicians" is worth roughly $2.6 million; and Brazil's Lygia Clark painted a $2.2 million piece of art called "Contra Relevo (Objeto N. 7)." Elsewhere in South America, Uruguay's Joaquín Torres García’s "Constructif Mysterieux," is valued at $1.7 million.
Africa
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In 2011, South African painter Irma Stern's "Arab Priest" sold at auction for nearly $5 million, making it the most valuable known piece of African art. In Egypt, painter Mahmoud Said's "The Whirling Dervishes" sold at auction in 2010 for more than $2.5 million.
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