Here Are the 10 Most Expensive Artworks Sold at Auction in 2019—and Why They Brought in the Prices They Did

Relatively speaking, 2019 wasn’t the frothiest of auction years,
especially compared with recent more robust ones, when several $50
million lots might be clustered into a single evening sale.
Nevertheless, works that were rare, of high quality, and by a big
star still managed to bring in hefty sums: nine of the 10 most
expensive works offered at auction in 2019 cleared the $50 million
trophy threshold.

Notably, all but one of the top works were sold in New York (and
all by Christie’s and Sotheby’s); the 10th hit the block at
Christie’s London. Classic contemporary art also continued to
dominate the high end of the market this year, with eight of the
highest prices achieved in postwar and contemporary sales. Seven of
the 10 works were made in the 1960s; just two date to the late 19th
century. Of course, this trend likely has more to do with supply
than demand; Impressionist masterpieces are simply harder to come
by these days.

It’s also worth noting that almost all but one of the top 10
works were paintings, and none was by a woman. The top result for a
female artist was Louise Bourgeois’s Spider (1997), which
sold for $32 million in May, making it the 15th most expensive work
sold this year.

Without further ado, here is a rundown of the 10 priciest works
sold in 2019—with details on why they sold for what they did, as
well as who bought and sold them (if we could figure it out).

1. Claude
Monet’s Meules (1891)

Price: $110.7 million

When: May 14

Where: Sotheby’s New York

Why: This luminous painting of haystacks
had been in the same private collection for more than three decades
before it hit the block at Sotheby’s this past spring. It last sold
at Christie’s in 1986 for $2.5 million—making the $110.7 million
final price, reached after an eight-minute bidding war, a 4,328
percent return for the consignor. This sale also marked the first time a painting
by Monet crossed the nine-figure mark at auction—and it wasn’t even
for one of his most coveted series. (That distinction goes to his
Japanese bridges, his paintings of the Rouen Cathedral, and the
“Water Lilies.”) Sources say this work—the best example of the
haystack series left in private hands—was purchased by German
software billionaire Hasso Plattner. The underbidder, we hear, was
hedge-fund manager Kenneth Griffin.

2. Jeff Koons’s Rabbit (1986)

Price: $91 million

When: May 15

Where: Christie’s New York

Why: Among certain collecting circles,
this work is considered to be the holy grail of Koons—and
Christie’s gave it star treatment. The bunny’s allure was further
burnished by the fact it came from the collection of the late
publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse. Bidding opened at $40 million
and, after a lengthy battle, it was sold for $91 million to veteran
art dealer Robert Mnuchin. According to multiple sources, Mnuchin was
bidding on behalf of hedge-fund billionaire Steve Cohen, beating
out underbidder Mitchell Rales, the industrialist behind Maryland’s
Glenstone museum. 

The price far surpassed the previous Koons record of $58.4
million and set a new record
for a work by a living artist at auction, exceeding the $90.3
million paid for David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two
Figures) last year. To
be fair to Hockney, however, Rabbit earned the title on a technicality, since
Christie’s raised its buyer’s premiums at the start of the year.
The hammer prices for the two works were identical.

3. Robert
Rauschenberg’s Buffalo II (1964)

Price: $88.8 million

When: May 15

Where: Christie’s New York

Why: Buffalo
II, sold by the estate of
the late Chicago collectors Robert and Beatrice
Meyer, shattered Rauschenberg’s previous auction record
of $18 million by nearly a factor of five. There are a number of
reasons it performed so well: it is from a particularly desirable
period, the same year the artist won the Golden Lion at the 1964
Venice Biennale; it is filled with classic American iconography,
from the Coca-Cola logo to JFK; and it hadn’t been on the market
for 50 years. Bidding opened at $50 million before a half-dozen
bidders chased the price up and the work eventually sold to a
client of Christie’s director of postwar and contemporary art Sara
Friedlander. Since most of Rauschenberg’s
prized early works are already housed in museums or private
collections, opportunities like this one were rare, and collectors
knew it. While rumors
circulated that Walmart heiress Alice Walton was the buyer, our
sources deny it. (Walton’s representatives did not respond to a
request for comment.)

4. Paul
Cézanne’s Bouilloire et fruits (1888)

Price: $59.3 million

When: May 13

Where: Christie’s New York

Why: This pristine still-life had the
added luster of a top-notch provenance, having also come from S.I.
Newhouse’s collection. When it hit the block, it was chased by
several clients bidding with Christie’s specialists from Asia,
suggesting strong demand from the region. The Cézanne has a
tumultuous history: It was stolen in a notorious 1978 robbery from
collector Michael Bakwin’s home in the Berkshires. The work was
recovered in 1999; that same year, Newhouse bought it for $29.5
million at Sotheby’s London.

5. Pablo
Picasso’s Femme au chien (1962)

Price: $54.9 million

When: May 14

Where: Sotheby’s New York

Why: Femme
au chien depicts the artist’s second wife, Jacqueline Roque,
and the artist’s beloved Afghan hound, Kaboul. The fact that it
returned to market after a long absence—its consignor, a private
Japanese collector, held it for roughly 29 years—definitely worked
in its favor. Offered with no financial guarantee, it hammered at
$48 million, or $54.9 million with premium. It
was a particularly strong
price for a painting of this period—especially since it is not, as
one dealer described it, an “aggressively erotic picture,” but
rather the equivalent of easy listening for Picasso. “It was bought
for a combination of being a commodity and a highly salable
object,” the dealer said.

6. Andy
Warhol’s Double Elvis [Ferus Type]
(1963)

When: May 15

Where: Christie’s

Why: The lofty
price achieved for this work—offered, according to Bloomberg,
by financier David Martinez—somewhat belies the lackluster bidding
action in the salesroom. It was estimated at $50 million to $70
million, with auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen opening the action at $38
million. The work was quickly hammered down to Alex Rotter,
Christie’s co-chairman of postwar and contemporary art, who we
understand was bidding on behalf of the third-party guarantor.

7. Ed
Ruscha’s Hurting the Word Radio #2
(1964)

Price: $52.5 million

When: November 13

Where: Christie’s New York

Why: The wryly
titled, cornflower-blue canvas depicts the word “Radio” being
pulled apart by metal clamps. The final price surpassed the
artists’s previous $30 million record by more than $20 million.
“This consummate work by Ruscha is an early example of his
revolutionary text paintings, a body of work that established him
as one of the most innovative and influential painters of his
generation,” Alex Rotter, Christie’s chairman of postwar and
contemporary art, said when the consignment was announced. For
years, the painting has been on his list of the “most desirable
works in private hands,” he added. The work—widely considered the
strongest lot of the fall season—was acquired in the early
1970s directly from the artist by the seller, collector Joan Quinn,
and her late husband Jack Quinn.

8. Francis
Bacon’s Study For A Head (1962)

Price: $50.4 million

When: May 16

Where: Sotheby’s New York

Why: This
landmark painting, from the artist’s “Screaming Pope” series, had
seen in public only once before. It was the star lot from the
collection of Seattle philanthropists Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang
Davis. Sothey’s contemporary art specialist Grégoire Billault said
he considered it the best of the “Screaming Pope” series, and “one
of the greatest paintings we have ever offered in my 20 years at
Sotheby’s.” It was snapped up
on behalf of a client by the London-based dealership Eykyn
Maclean.

9. Mark
Rothko’s Untitled (1960)

Price: $50.1 million

When: May 16

Where: Sotheby’s New York

Why: The San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art consigned this color-block painting
and secured a hefty estimate of $35 million to $50 million, as well
as a guarantee. The museum announced that it
planned to use the $50 million in proceeds to fill gaps in its
collection, with a particular focus on work by women and artists of
color. While there is
extremely strong demand for great Rothkos, whose rectangles seem to
float like clouds within the picture plane, “this was not a great
one,” one dealer said. “Otherwise [the museum] wouldn’t have been
selling it.”

10. David
Hockney’s Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott
(1969)

Price: $49.5 million (£37.7 milion)

When: March 6

Where: Christie’s London

Why: Other than David Hockney’s pool pictures, like
the one that sold for $90 million last fall, his double portraits
are the most sought-after part of his oeuvre. This painting—of
Hockney’s close friend, legendary former Met curator Henry
Geldzahler, and Geldzahler’s then-boyfriend Christopher Scott—came
from the estate of luxury travel executive Barney Ebsworth. (Music
exec David Geffen bought the work at auction for $1.1 million in
1992, and promised it as a gift to MoMA before selling it to
Ebsworth in 1997—not the most polite move!) Christie’s wisely opted
to sell the painting four months later than most of the Ebsworth
collection so as not to compete directly with Hockney’s
record-setting Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two
Figures) (1972).

The post Here Are the 10 Most Expensive Artworks Sold at
Auction in 2019—and Why They Brought in the Prices They Did
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