The 10 most expensive paintings in the world
As the art world buzzes with the busiest sales week of the year, we round up the 10 most expensive paintings ever sold
Paul Cézanne's The Card Players, held the record for the most expensive painting ever sold before the sale of Gauguin's When Will You Marry in 2015.
The painting is one of a series of five oil paintings completed by the post-impressionist artist between the early and the mid 1890s and the only one left in private hands. The versions vary in size, the number of players, and the setting in which the game takes place.
Now, four of the five paintings reside in the world's most prestigious institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. This painting was sold in 2011 for $274 million, and now belongs to the Royal Family of Qatar.
Did you know?
The two models used for the painting were Cézanne’s gardener and farming assistant at his family estate in Provence.
