While most people worldwide struggle to make ends meet, some clueless people spend all their wealth. While these two groups of people seem to be poles apart, the population’s distribution in each of these groups is anything but equal. And that makes it such that only a handful of people globally are super-wealthy and can afford to buy the whole world, while some live with just a dollar a day in a few nations.
Sometimes, these wealthy people’s splurges are beyond what words could fathom for the rest of us. It leaves us in shock with our jaws hitting the floor, wondering how someone could spend so much on something. Do not believe us? Well, here are a few paintings that the rich and elite people across the world have splurged on over the past decade. Remember, this one isn’t for those with a faint heart!
Salvator Mundi – $450.3 million
What is the maximum you think a person can spend on a painting? Well, whatever your answer was, we are sure it’s less than the number we have here. Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud is now in possession of the world’s most expensive painting. He bought the painting at an auction by shelling out $450.3 million.
This makes it the most expensive artwork in the history of auctioned items. This 600-year-old painting by Leonardo da Vinci is one the very few surviving works on the artist, which makes it all the more precious. Yes, there are barely 20 paintings left, and the Salvator Mundi is also popularly referred to as the Male Monalisa by a few art connoisseurs.
Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) – $179 million
We wouldn’t play a guessing game this time because we are talking about the great Pablo Picasso paintings. Les Femmes d’Alger is part of a series of 15 paintings. These paintings date back to 1954 to 1955 and draw inspiration from the Eugène Delacroix’s 1834 painting The Women of Algiers in their Apartment. So, when this painting comes up for an auction, you can imagine that the prices will be sky high for sure.
Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani bought this from an auction in 2015. He shelled out a whopping $179.4 million to acquire this painting. Indeed, a man of great taste, we should say, as the work of art has numerous cubism examples and is one of the most colorful pieces of art by Pablo Picasso. And at the time of this auction, it created a record for being the most expensive art pieces auctioned until then. It was in 2017 that the Salvator Mundi painting broke this record.
The Scream – $120 million
The Scream is a work of art by the Norwegian Expressionist Edvard Munch. This was part of a series of self-portraits, and this is a recreation of his traumatic childhood. The painter depicts his emotion on losing his sister when he was just 13. The Norwegian title for this painting is Skrik, which translates in Scream.
The painting is famous for representing the modern man’s existential crisis so effortlessly and because the artist created five versions of the same piece. This artwork went up for an auction in 2012 with a bidding price of $120 million. Are you screaming in shock and disbelief? Wait until we tell you the original estimated price for this work of art. The estimated cost was around $80 million. However, a 15-minute-long auction increased the price to a whopping $120 million.
Well, we understand your shock, and we can hear you scream, Oh My God! The wealthy Nand affluent people can afford these luxuries and are probably just the tip of the iceberg of wealth and assets. We agree that the artworks are priceless, and it isn’t fair to put a price tag on them.
But for most of us, it wouldn’t be possible to earn all this fortune to buy a painting like this in our entire lifetime, so your gasps are understandable! While we can not afford this lifestyle, we can still look at the luxuries and set our goals to achieve a fortune like them! Remember, there is no harm in dreaming big and striving to achieve the goals. And as you work to start working towards your dreams, achieving it wouldn’t be a tough task!
