Top Three World’s Most Expensive Auctioned Paintings In Recent Times

Art gives meaning to everything it touches. Art is done with beautiful strokes that contains messages and emotions, art sends to the senses.

Below are some of the most expensive artworks sold at an auction in recent times:

N21.6 Billion- Wood and Rock

Su-shi Scroll. Photo: Christies.

A nearly 1,000-year-old ink painting by one of China’s greatest literati masters Su Shi fetched HK$463,600,000 (N21.6 billion) at auction house, Christie’s. The house described the Song Dynasty artwork as “one of the world’s rarest Chinese paintings”. Entitled “Wood and Rock”, the ink-on-paper handscroll depicts a dragon-like old tree with withered branches and a sharp rock resting at its root. The painting is the most expensive item ever sold in Christie’s Asia. The 185.5cm-long scroll is inscribed with calligraphy and the poems of four important literati of the 11th century in China and also exhibits the seals of 41 collectors.

N1.235 Billion- Bush Babies

Bush Baby. Photo: Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Nigerian born painter, Njideka Akunyili Crosby made history after she sold her botanical “Bush Babies” painting for a record-breaking $3.4 million (N1.235 billion) at Sotheby’s New York, making it the most expensive art sold at an auction. Sotheby’s has predicted an N289 million. The painting attracted more than 350 lots. Njideka’s paintings are collage compositions which bothers on the political history of Nigeria and aims to present a counter the stereotypical perceptions about Africans.

N500.6m – Girl with Balloon

The mystery street artist Banksy has been one of the biggest amusements in recent times. While his gothic “Bemusement Park” is a spectacle to behold, his recent stunt with his painting which was worth £1,042,000 (N500.6m) at an auction in Sotheby’s shredded itself after it was sold. Unknown to everyone, Banksy who does not like his paintings sold embedded a shredder in the painting tagged “Girl with Balloon.” Yet, a buyer maintained that she will purchase the art which has been renamed “Love is in the Bin”.