In 2025, the high-end art market underwent an adjustment after several record years. The Art Basel & UBS report describes a period of consolidation, with a more balanced and less speculative environment.
Art auctions in 2025 recorded historic sales of exceptional lots. For example, the big November auction—including the Leonard Lauder collection—raised more than $2.2 billion in New York alone. After a challenging 2025, the outlook for 2026 is somewhat more optimistic thanks to strong sales at fairs such as Art Basel Miami and continued recoveries at international auctions.
The 10 most expensive works of art sold at auction in 2025
Retrato de Elisabeth Lederer (Gustav Klimt, ca. 1914–1916) – $236.4 million.
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, painted between 1914 and 1916, was the most expensive work of art in 2025. It sold at Sotheby’s New York on 18 November for $236.4 million, setting a historic record (as the most expensive piece of modern art ever auctioned).
This full-length oil painting depicts Elisabeth, the daughter of a wealthy Viennese family, dressed in a tunic inspired by Oriental motifs. This work is of great historical importance: it saved the young Lederer from Nazi persecution (she pretended to be Klimt’s daughter to protect herself) and is one of only two full-length portraits by Klimt still in private hands.
From the collection of Leonard Lauder (a great patron of Austro-Hungarian art), the piece combines the decorative elegance of Austrian Secessionism with a symbol of cultural resistance. Its sale sets a new benchmark for the sale of Klimt’s works of art and underlines the sustained demand for fin-de-siècle masters.
Blumenwiese (Flower Meadow) (Gustav Klimt, 1908) – $86 million.
Gustav Klimt made a strong comeback at the same auction in November. Blumenwiese, a luminous landscape of wildflowers painted during a summer retreat at Lake Attersee, fetched $86 million at Sotheby’s New York (November 18). This figure far exceeded its initial estimate and made it one of the most valuable Klimt landscapes ever sold at auction.
The work exemplifies Klimt’s mystical approach to landscape: his brushstrokes evoke an intricate mosaic of color and form. Originally owned by the Koller patrons, the painting is celebrated for its summery palette and pattern of floral dots that anticipate abstract art. Its sale—part of the sale of artwork from the Lauder collection—confirms the high collector interest in Klimt’s modernist landscapes, surpassed only by his famous “Birch Forest” (1903) sold in 2022.
Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee (Gustav Klimt, 1916) – $68.3 million
Another Klimt gem from the Lauder collection was Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee (1916), sold on the same night for $68.3 million. This landscape, the last he painted at his summer retreat in the Salzkammergut region, is the “last surviving landscape of his career.”
It depicts a serene scene: wooded hills on the edge of a tranquil lake, rendered in rich green tones and stylized details. Its significance is twofold: not only did it break Klimt’s personal record for landscapes, but it also marked its auction debut (the painting had never been auctioned before).
The fact that three works by Klimt fetched multimillion-dollar prices in a single night highlights the position of Austrian modernist painting in the contemporary market.
Romans parisiens (Parisian Books) (Vincent van Gogh, 1887) – $62.7 million.
At Sotheby’s fall sale (Pritzker Collection, November 20), Van Gogh led the sales with Romans parisiens (1887), a still life of books on a table, auctioned for $62.7 million. After seven minutes of intense bidding, the work was acquired by art advisor Patti Wong.
The painting, considered intimate and warm, depicts piles of books (many with yellow covers) in the apartment of the artist’s brother, Theo. The auction result for this work nearly doubled the previous record for a Van Gogh from his late Parisian period ($33.2 million in 2024).
5. No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) (Mark Rothko, 1958) – $62.1 million
At Christie’s New York (November 17), the most expensive piece was Mark Rothko’s oil painting No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) (1958), which sold for $62.1 million.
From the Weis-Ross collection, this painting of two horizontal stripes (yellow and orange-red) epitomizes Rothko’s bright phase, before his later darker palette. The large areas of soft color, bordered by blurred contours, invite meditative contemplation.
The sale, which led the 20th-century art auction that evening, demonstrates the continued strength of abstract expressionism: even in a year of general contraction, collectors are looking to invest in Rothko’s iconic compositions.
6. The Dream (The Bed) (Frida Kahlo, 1940) – $54.6 million
In another key auction in November, Frida Kahlo’s surrealist masterpiece El sueño (La cama) (1940) sold for $54.6 million. Consigned from the estate of Selma Ertegun, this painting by Frida Kahlo set a new auction record for a female artist.
The canvas shows Kahlo herself lying in a bed floating above the sky, surrounded by vines; above her appears a gigantic skeletal figure clutching a bouquet of flowers. It thus emphasizes the subconscious and personal pain: the appearance of the skeleton with dynamite reflects the anguish following the assassination of Leon Trotsky (Kahlo’s close friend and lover) and her marital crisis with Diego Rivera. The powerful symbolic charge and pictorial virtuosity resulted in unprecedented bidding. In addition to breaking the artist’s previous record ($34.9 million in 2021), this sale highlights the growing appreciation of top-selling female artists; specifically, it positioned Kahlo as the most expensive female artist.
7. Crowns (Net Weight) (Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1981) – $48.3 million.
Jean-Michel Basquiat also featured among the year’s big sellers. His work Crowns (Net Weight) (1981) fetched $48.3 million at Sotheby’s New York on November 18. Painted at Christmas 1981, the piece incorporates Basquiat’s distinctive motifs: four heads surrounded by crowns, numbers, and arrows, with inscriptions in black ink on a red, yellow, and blue background.
Crowns was first exhibited at the Annina Nosei Gallery in 1982 and then at Documenta 7 (1982), before passing through private collections in London and New York. Although it did not break the artist’s record, its price was among the highest of the year and confirms the persistent demand for neo-expressionist masterpieces as a cultural investment.
8. Composition with Large Red, Blue-Gray, Yellow, Black, and Blue Planes (Piet Mondrian, 1922) – for $47.5 million.
One of Christie’s spring auctions (May) was led by an icon of Neoplasticism: Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue (1922), which sold for $47.5 million.
This painting, originally acquired from Mondrian by poet Anthony Kok, dominates with a large central red rectangle on a rigorous grid of primary-colored and black rectangles. As experts explain, it is “a canonical example of Mondrian’s mature period” and a pillar of the De Stijl movement, which sought a universal visual language through strict geometry and primary colors.
The work was the most expensive in that May series and confirms Mondrian’s sustained value: despite being close to his record (the maximum is $51 million in 2022), it underscores that investors remain interested in fundamental pieces of geometric abstraction.
9. Nymphéas (Claude Monet, 1907) – $45.4 million
Among the most coveted Impressionist pieces, Claude Monet’s Nymphéas (1907) fetched $45.4 million at Christie’s auction on May 17. From the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art (whose facilities are currently undergoing renovation), this oil painting of water lilies captures the pond at Giverny in soft morning light.
The work was one of the highlights of the 20th-century auction and is part of Monet’s “Water Lilies” series, comprising around 250 pieces.
Nymphéas (1907) is particularly significant in Monet’s career for its tranquil atmosphere and loose brushwork. While this price does not exceed the artist’s highest records (Meules 1890 at $110 million, there are many recent high results), it confirms that international markets maintain a keen interest in Monet’s sublime Impressionist light.
10. La Lecture (Marie-Thérèse) (Pablo Picasso, 1932) – $45.4 million.
Finally, on the same day at Christie’s (May 17), La Lecture (Marie-Thérèse) (1932) sold for $45.4 million.
Painted during the summer in Boisgeloup, just after Picasso’s major Paris retrospective, it shows Marie-Thérèse absorbed in reading, with soft, geometric shapes in pastel tones. Pablo Picasso’s work on sale stands out for its sculptural volume and visible charcoal lines, attributes that convey the intimacy and serenity of the moment.
From the Ross Weis collection (acquired in 1985), although it did not break the artist’s record, its price places it among the most expensive pieces auctioned in the 20th century and demonstrates that Picasso’s legacy continues to attract global collectors.
