To begin our list of most expensive paintings, we have “False Start”, done by Jasper Johns. Sold at $84.6 million, this piece became in 2006 the most expensive painting by a living artist.

Currently, the most expensive art work ever sold at auction is Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” for $142 million in 2013. That series of three portraits was expected to get ...

There is no better example of this than the 1973 Scull sale, where Robert C. Scull, a New York taxi magnate, sold his 50 best abstract expressionist and pop art paintings at Sotheby Parke Bernet.

While most paintings in the series are displayed at museums throughout the world, this particular one was bought by the royal family of Qatar for $250 million in 2011. DEA / E. LESSING - Getty Images ...

1. No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red) – $186 Million At the end of our 10 Most Expensive Abstract Paintings in the World list, we have, not surprisingly, another of Mark Rothko’s canvases, with a ...