The 15 Most Expensive Art Auctions of 2026 (So Far)

Nicole Hoey

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This recent auction season has signaled a change on the art-world market. Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips sold $2.5 billion worth of artworks in May, a leap from the $1.3 billion the trio generated at auction in the same period last year, The New York Times reported.

But what has helped reignite that fervor? The sale of Condé Nast titan S.I. Newhouse’s art cornucopia certainly led the charge, as well as many other sought-after pieces from the treasure trove of other major collectors and, per the NYT, a return across the industry to deliberate bidding and sensible pricing, as well as quality items going up for grabs.

As a result, we’ve had plenty of heavy hitters realize sky-high prices this year. Here are the 15 most expensive art lots sold at auction in 2026—so far, at least.

• Henri Matisse, Robe noire et robe violette, $34.6 Million

  

  As we mentioned, many an artwork on this list comes from Christie’s Newhouse sale this past May. That includes Henri Matisse’s Robe noire et robe violette, which realized $34.6 million during the event. The vibrant 1938 piece, painted from April 16 to May 11 in Nice, is just one of the artist’s works that depicts female figures in interior settings. The artwork also marks the first time Matisse used photography to document the progress of his work, which allowed him to discover different configurations of the piece along the way.

• Gerhard Richter, Kerze (Candle), $35.1 Million

  

  Gerhard Richter’s serene Kerze (Candle) depicts a lit candle covering its surroundings in a soft light—it’s one of just three surviving painting from the artist to show a full candle. The still life from 1982 was a stark departure from Richter’s exhibition in Germany of large-scale abstractions. To create this piece in particular, the artist used a photo of a candle in his studio taken just for this painting. Part of Christie’s sale of the private collection of contemporary art gallerist Marian Goodman, it sold for $35.1 million on May 20.

• Piet Mondrian, Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black and Yellow, $39.7 Million

  

  Another member of Christie’s Newhouse extravaganza, Piet Mondrain’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black and Yellow was born as the artist’s signature aesthetic came into form, building upon the breakthrough he had in 1920 that would define the ideals of Neo-Plasticism. The 1921 geometric painting is one of the earliest examples of Mondrain’s creations that have a single large square acting as a dominating force in a work, an asymmetrical design that shines a light on the right side. When it went under the hammer, the work fetched $39.7 million, eclipsing its low estimate of $35 million.

• Pablo Picasso, Homme à la guitare, $40.9 Million

  

  This isn’t the first time you’ll see Pablo Picasso on this list. The famed artist painted Homme à la guitare in 1913, when he spent the summer in the French commune of Céret. Featuring one of Picasso’s favored subjects—a man and a guitar—the artwork marks his entry into Synthetic Cubism, according to Christie’s, the second stage of his journey through the cubism movement. Hammering down for $40.9 million, the painting is also Picasso’s only large canvas from that time period and is the largest-scale work from 1913 in private hands.

• Pablo Picasso, Arlequin (Buste), $42.6 Million

  

  Another pivotal piece in Picasso’s Cubism journey is Arlequin (Buste), which he brought to life in 1909. The painting also depicts another common character in the artist’s oeuvre: the harlequin, a comic character seen in 17th-century Italy’s Commedia dell’Arte performances; the performer’s diagonal garb is depicted here in swirls of blues, oranges, and greens. As for its provenance, the artwork was part of a treasure trove of works owned by the late Surrealist artist Enrico Donati and his wife Adele, which went up for auction via Sotheby’s and hammered down for $42.6 million.

• Cy Twombly, Untitled, $45.5 million

  

  Untitled, 1961, depicts a change in Cy Twombly. He had settled in Rome and was painting in a way that embraced all the Eternal City had to offer, a departure from his previous craft. It was during this time when he began developing his signature script as well, a form that would follow him throughout the next decade. There’s even a nod to his new home at the bottom of the work, where you can see “Roma” at the painting’s center. Sold in Christie’s 20th Century Evening sale, the piece fetched $45.5 million, surpassing its low estimate of $40 million.

• Roy Lichtenstein, Anxious Girl, $46.1 Million

  

  Roy Lichtenstein was an essential figure in Pop Art, and his Anxious Girl masterpiece is just one example why. Formerly part of legendary collectors Horace and Holly Solomon’s trove (and rarely before seen in the public eye), the piece shows off the artist’s signature Ben-Day dot design, gathered here to render a distressed young blonde. Lichtenstein pulled from comics as inspiration for many a creation; in this instance, the creative took a cue from the heroine depicted in “Too Much to Ask,” a story published in Girls’ Romances #97 in 1963. The piece hammered down for a cool $46.1 million at Christie’s, also part of its 20th Century Evening Sale.

• Henri Matisse, La Chaise lorraine, $48.4 Million

  

  Now the second-most expensive Matisse painting to be sold at auction, La Chaise lorraine from 1919 is a still-life motif depicts a wooden chair upon which a plate of peaches is perched. The background, meanwhile, is done up in a blue-and-white pattern known as toile de Jouy, a printed cotton fabric from the 18th and 19th centuries that has appeared in many a work from the artist. As Matisse once said, “To copy the objects in a still life is nothing . . . one must render the emotions they awaken in him,” per Sotheby’s. The painting definitely generated some emotion on the block, hammering down for $48.4 million in the house’s Modern Evening Auction in May.

• Pablo Picasso, Tête de femme (Fernande), $48.5 Million

  

  There’s a good reason why Picasso’s Tête de femme (Fernande) fetched more than a pretty penny when it went under the hammer. The 1909 bronze face, with its ridges and facets, is the famed artist’s first Cubist sculpture, changing the landscape of the medium itself as he explored 3-D forms. Picasso’s first muse, Fernande Olivier, acts as the subject of the piece (if the name didn’t give that away), which the icon crafted after the two spent a pivotal summer together in Spain. Another member of the Newhouse sale at Christie’s, it brought in $48.5 million this spring.

• Jean-Michel Basquiat, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown), $52.7 Million

  

  Born from Jean-Michael Basquiat’s formative time spent in Los Angeles, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) is an explosion of language in the artist’s signature graffiti-inspired musings, with phrases encompassing fame, race, class, and more clinging to each corner of the canvas. The 7-foot-by-7-foot artwork is often tied to another masterpiece from the artist, Hollywood Africans, both created in 1983. First popping up on the auction market back in 2013, the piece stepped back onto the block this May and went for $52.7 million.

• Joan Miro, Portrait de Madame K., $53.5 Million

  

  Joan Miró underwent something of a metamorphosis in 1924, according to Christie’s, breaking away from realism and entering the world of surreal, mystical creations. One of the many artworks born from that shift was Portrait de Madame K., a monochromatic display of different symbols, shapes, and silhouettes. Newhouse added the work to his collection in 2001 as part of a Christie’s sale; the piece then stepped back into the fray via the auction house this past May, as a part of the aforementioned megasale of the media titan’s collection, where it fetched $53.5 million.

• Mark Rothko, Brown and Blacks in Reds, $85.8 Million

  

  One of the most expensive Mark Rothko pieces to ever sell at auction (more on the first in a second), Brown and Blacks in Reds was created in 1957—one of the artist’s 37 paintings that year. Spanning over seven feet, Rothko used the canvas to explore the depths of various shades of red and black. This piece also had an important provenance: It belonged to the collection of Robert Mnuchin, a former investment banker who traded his career with Goldman Sachs for life as an art dealer. Sotheby’s sale of his works generated a total of $433.1 million, led by Brown and Blacks in Reds and its $85.8 million sale price, of course.

• Mark Rothko, No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe), $98.4 Million

  

  Turns out Picasso and Matisse aren’t the only repeats on our list: Rothko makes an appearance in back-to-backs slots. This time, the artist’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) is the star, a seven-foot-tall abstraction that was created in 1964. Former MoMA president emerita Agnes Gund counted the dark-hued piece, with waves of greens and indigo accented by the red stripe, in her massive collection; she actually acquired it from the artist himself back 1967 and reportedly hung it in her living room, per ArtNews. The creation realized $98.4 million, becoming the artist’s most expensive piece to be sold at auction to date.

• Constantin Brâncuși, Danaïde, $107.6 million

  

  Constantin Brancusi brought this elegant bronze sculpture with a gold leaf and black patina to life circa 1913, with a young Hungarian artist named Margit Pogany as his muse; it’s one of six iterations of the subject and the sole gilded one left in private hands. The piece’s name is also a nod to a Greek myth, in which the 50 daughters of King Danaos—the Danaïdes—were ordered to kill their husbands on their wedding night. As an artwork in Christie’s Newhouse sale, it hammered down for $107.6 million, a record for the artist.

• Jackson Pollock, Number 7A, $181.2 million

  

  No surprises here. Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A sits comfortably on this year’s auction throne, hammered down for $181.2 million with fees at Christie’s sale of Newhouse’s famed art collection. That makes the 11-foot-wide artwork, crafted with oil paint and enamel, one of the most expensive artworks to ever cross the auction block, and it shattered the Abstract Expressionist’s own auction record. Its place in Newhouse’s collection certainly drew a lot of eyes (ArtNews reported the 1948 piece had over 60 bids), though its enormous size also played a key role: Number 7A is said to be the largest drip painting in private hands.

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