Robert LaFranco
04/01/2007
Record price for a work of art sold through an auction house.
Adele Bloch-Bauer 1 (1907)
Artist: Gustav Klimt
Ronald Lauder paid $135 million in a private sale that Christie’s brokered in June 2006. The only higher price on record is David Geffen’s private sale of Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948, to Mexican financier David Martinez, reportedly for $140 million.
Record price for postwar art.
Untitled XXV (1977)
Artist: Willem de Kooning
New York dealers Christopher Eykyn and Nicholas Maclean paid $27.12 million at Christie’s in New York in November 2006.
Record Price for a Warhol.
Mao (1972)
Artist: Andy Warhol
Hong Kong real estate tycoon Joseph Lau paid $17.4 million at Christie’s in New York in November 2006.
Record price for a Picasso.
Boy With a Pipe (1905)
Artist: Pablo Picasso
An anonymous buyer paid $104 million at Sotheby’s in New York in May 2004, marking the first time a piece of artwork commanded more than $100 million.
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Winning the Bidding Wars