With the CRAZY auction prices this year, I was wondering just who is the all-time auction sales champ? Hard to say exactly. The top two, Warhol and Picasso, keep switching positions. This year alone, Andy has racked up $585,288,283, followed closely behind by Pablo, with $558,573,721. The only living artist in the top ten is Gerhard Richter with $166,587,189. (Note: we are only halfway into 2013, kids.) Watch out for Jean Michel Basquiat, number nine this year with $106,321,559 and save that loose change for the fall auctions.
Pablo Picasso, “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” 1932 hammered at $106,500,000 in 2010. Andy Warhol, “Green Car Crash”, 1963, sold for $71,720,000; Just this May, Gerhard Richter’s 1968 painting Domplatz, Mailand sold for $37,000,000, an auction record for a living artist