We thought it would be interesting to publish a list of the 10 most expensive paintings sold at Christie's, Sotheby's and Philips contemporary evening auctions (we can only compare paintings with paintings to avoid confusion). We then converted this to the price paid per sq cm in order to see how this would impact the rankings.
On June 6th, 2017 we published an article titled "Is the insurance value of Picasso's Guernica close to 3 bln USD.", which could be found here: http://artdependence.com/issue/july-2017/article/is-the-insurance-value-of-picassos-guernica-close-to-3-bln-usd
We received a lot of comments and reactions to that piece. It's true that numbers and statistics are facts, but it's also worth remembering that there are several ways to interpret those numbers.
2/ Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Red Skull. Price realised on Christie's GBP 16.546.250 = 712,41 pound sq cm
3/ Peter Doig (b. 1959), Camp Forestia. Price realised on Christie's GBP 15,421,250 = 533,61 pound sq cm
4/ SIGMAR POLKE, Tänzerin. Painted in 1994, this work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné. Price realised on Phillips GBP 3.369.000 = 417,46 pound sq cm
5/ Cy Twombly, UNTITLED. Price realised on Sotheby's GBP 6,402,500 = 325, 99 pound sq cm
6/ Jean Dubuffet, CORTÈGE. Price realised on Sotheby's GBP 3.196.250 = 288,77 pound sq cm
7/ David Hockney, 15 CANVAS STUDY OF THE GRAND CANYON. Price realised on Sotheby's GBP 6.008.750 = 213,54 pound sq cm
8/ Jean-Michel Basquiat, REMOTE COMMANDER. Price realised on Sotheby's GBP 2.971.250 = 116,32 pound sq cm
9/ Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Both Poles. Price realised on Christie's GBP 3.777.500 = 111,76 pound sq cm
10/ Philip Guston, ODESSA. Price realised on Sotheby's GBP 3.758.750 = 111,27 pound sq cm
