The 10 Most Expensive Works of Art Sold at Auction in 2026

The global art market is showing signs of recovery in 2026. According to an ArtTactic report, sales at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips grew by 70% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, reaching $6.8 billion.

The combined value of the ten most expensive works sold at auction this year reached $767.7 million. The ranking is dominated by paintings by American and European 20th-century artists, along with two sculptures — by Picasso and Brancusi. Most of the records were set within a single week in May, when the major sales took place in New York at Christie's and Sotheby's, together totaling nearly $2.5 billion.

10. Cy Twombly, "Untitled" — $45.5 million

Sold at Christie's in New York from the collection of collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund, president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), who passed away in 2025. Twombly painted the work in 1961 after settling in Rome — the bottom of the canvas even bears the inscription "Roma." It was during this period that the artist developed the signature expressive style — looping graphite lines and layers of earthy reds — that would define his work for the next decade. The painting had belonged to Gund since 1988.

9. Roy Lichtenstein, "Anxious Girl" — $46.1 million

Sold at Christie's. Painted in 1964, at the height of the artist's career, in his signature Ben-Day dots technique. It depicts a distressed young blonde woman — an image borrowed from the comic "Too Much to Ask" (Girls' Romances #97, December 1963). The painting belongs to Lichtenstein's "Girl" series, one of his rarest and most recognizable bodies of work: of the ten paintings in the series, the last to appear at auction was "Nurse," which sold for $95 million in 2015. "Anxious Girl" had spent over 30 years in the private collection of Horace and Holly Solomon, influential New York Pop Art collectors, without any public appearances.

8. Henri Matisse, "La Chaise lorraine" — $48.4 million

Sold at Sotheby's in New York from the legendary Barbier-Mueller collection. A 1919 still life: a wooden chair with a plate of peaches against a blue-and-white Toile de Jouy textile, which the artist frequently used in works from his "Nice period." Bidding lasted about ten minutes among four bidders and nearly doubled the low estimate of $25 million. The result became the second-highest ever achieved for a Matisse painting at auction.

7. Pablo Picasso, "Tête de femme (Fernande)" — $48.5 million

Sold at Christie's. A bronze head from 1909 — Picasso's first Cubist sculpture, which radically changed the approach to volume and form in sculpture. It depicts his first muse, Fernande Olivier. The work was acquired at the same Christie's in 2001 by media magnate S.I. Newhouse for $4.5 million — meaning its price grew more than tenfold over 25 years, an annualized return of roughly 10%.

6. Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)" — $52.7 million

Sold at Sotheby's, entering the artist's top 5 most expensive auction results. Created in 1983 in Los Angeles, in a studio provided by dealer Larry Gagosian — a period when the 22-year-old Basquiat was seeking distance from the intensity of the New York art scene. The 2.1 × 2.1 meter canvas is executed in the artist's signature graffiti style and is dense with text touching on themes of fame, race, and class. It last sold in 2013 for $14.5 million — meaning its value more than tripled over 13 years.

5. Joan Miró, "Portrait de Madame K." — $53.5 million

Sold at Christie's, setting a new auction record for the artist (the previous one, $37 million, had stood since 2012). In 1924, the year André Breton published the "Surrealist Manifesto," Miró's work underwent a transformation: the artist moved away from realism toward abstract, almost mystical imagery. The painting's first owner was fellow Surrealist Max Ernst, Miró's neighbor and colleague.

4. Mark Rothko, "Brown and Blacks in Reds" — $85.8 million

Sold at Sotheby's from the collection of the late New York art dealer Robert Mnuchin — nearly his entire collection (11 lots) brought in $166.3 million that evening. The 1957 canvas once hung in the lobby of the Seagram Building in Manhattan. Mnuchin had bought it in 2003 at Christie's for just $6.7 million — meaning the price rose by nearly 1,200% over 23 years. The result fell only slightly short of Rothko's all-time auction record of $86.9 million, set in 2012.

3. Mark Rothko, No. 15 ("Two Greens and Red Stripe") — $98.4 million

Sold at Christie's — and this time the artist's record was broken, by $11.5 million. The painting had belonged to former MoMA president Agnes Gund, who bought it directly from Rothko in his studio in 1967, three years before the artist's death. According to Gund, she had originally asked Rothko for a lighter-toned work, but the artist insisted on this one. The painting hung in Gund's living room for nearly six decades and left her apartment only once, for a month-long exhibition in 1972.

2. Constantin Brancusi, "Danaïde" — $107.6 million

Sold at Christie's, also from the S.I. Newhouse collection — a record for the sculptor (the previous one was $71.2 million) and the second-highest price ever paid for a sculpture at auction, after Giacometti's $141.3 million result in 2015. The 1913 bronze with gold leaf and black patina is one of six cast versions and the only gilded one to remain in private hands (the other four are held in museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate in London). The model was young Hungarian artist Margit Pogany. Newhouse had bought the sculpture in 2002 for just $18.2 million — the auction record for any sculpture at the time.

1. Jackson Pollock, "Number 7A" — $181.2 million

Sold at Christie's from the S.I. Newhouse collection — the top lot of the season, nearly three times Pollock's previous auction record of $61.2 million, set in 2021. The 3.3-meter-wide canvas, painted in oil and enamel in 1948 in the barn of the artist's Long Island home, is the largest drip painting by Pollock remaining in private hands (most works of this scale are held in museums). Bidding lasted about ten minutes and drew more than 60 bids.

What This Means for the Ukrainian Art Market

A common thread across this year's records is provenance: nearly every work in the top 10 comes from a well-known, documented collection (Newhouse, Gund, Mnuchin, Barbier-Mueller), and ownership history, alongside authenticity, drove the final price just as much as the artist's name.

The same principle applies in the far more accessible segment of the market — including works by Ukrainian artists. That is why, when buying, selling, inheriting, or insuring a painting, an official certificate of authenticity and, where needed, an attribution expertise confirming authorship are essential.

If you are planning to sell a painting, settle an inheritance, insure a work of art, or prepare documents for export abroad, the ArtDom gallery can help with valuation, expertise, and issuing a certificate of authenticity, as well as with logistics — packaging and delivery of artworks across Ukraine and internationally.