9 Most Expensive Artists Of All Time

This list includes the painters whose works you probably will never be able to afford!

Amedeo Modigliani
Nu couché, a stunning portrait of a woman reclined on a bed, sold for $170.4 in 2015. Amedeo Modigliani is known for his paintings of women with elongated features. Like many other painters, he was not recognized for his work during his lifetime, but became extremely popular and renowned after his death in 1920.

Pablo Picasso
The person who spent a whole lifetime learning how to paint like a child. Pablo Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger sold for $179m in 2015 to a private collection. While many of Picasso’s more famous paintings (looking at you, Guernica) are truly priceless, this is the most expensive Picasso’s painting, and the 9th most expensive painting to ever have been sold.

Mark Rothko
Like Jackson Pollock (who appears further in this list), Mark Rothko’s work is considered by many to be simple. However the way he worked with colors and created immersive abstract impressionist paintings is unparalleled. His painting, No. 6 (Violet, Green, and Red) sold for $186 million in 2014.