Jackson Pollock work sells for $181 million

NEW YORK - A Jackson Pollock painting sold for a record US$181.2 million (S$231.92 million) on May 18, at Christie’s in New York, leading a blockbuster day at the auction house.

With its black drips of paint accented by touches of red on a huge canvas spanning over 3m, Pollock’s “Number 7A, 1948“ sold for US$181.2 million, including fees.

According to ARTnews, the sale makes it the fourth most expensive work ever sold at auction.

The previous auction record for the abstract expressionist painter was US$61.2 million, set in 2021.

Other works by him have been sold privately for up to US$200 million.

“It is with this work that Pollock finally frees himself from the shackles of conventional easel painting and produces one of the first truly abstract paintings in the history of art,” Christie’s said in a statement.

“Danaide,” a bronze head sculpted around 1913 by Romanian-born artist Constantin Brancusi, sold for US$107.6 million, topping its previous record of US$71.2 million set in 2018.

“No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)“ by American painter Mark Rothko sold for US$98.4 million, while Catalan artist Joan Miro’s “Portrait of Madame K.” was bought for US$53.5 million.

The sales smashed previous records for Rothko (US$86.9 million) and Miro (US$37 million) set in 2012.

The May 18 eye-watering auction follows a string of records set at Sotheby’s in November 2025.

Austrian master Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer”, which he painted between 1914 and 1916, sold for US$236.4 million, becoming the second most expensive work ever sold at auction.

“The Dream (The Bed)” (1940), a self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, sold for US$54.7 million, setting a record for the price of a painting by a woman.

The most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains the “Salvator Mundi,” (Savior of the World), a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for US$450 million in 2017. AFP