THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE ARTISTS

     Top-50 world's most expensive artists of February 2015. 
    The rating is presented by agency Skate's ArtMarket Research based on data on Top-10000 most expensive works of visual art sold at open auctions before February 2015 (data on closed private sales were ignored).
     Pablo Picasso heads the rating, leaving the competitors far behind. Top-10000 includes 572 of his paintings with total value of $ 4 096,100 million. The average price of Picasso's works is $ 7,161 million. The highest average price of works by Gustav Klimt amounts to $ 20,864 million.
    The presented Top-50 includes four living artists: Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Damien Hirst.
   The following table shows the years of the life of artists and artistic styles which include the majority of their artworks sold.

RANK
ARTIST
QUANTITY OF WORKS IN 
TOP-10000
AVERAGE PRICE 
(USD million)
TOTAL VALUE
(USD million)
1
Pablo Picasso  (1881-1973), Cubist
572
7,610
4 096,100
2
Andy Warhol  (1928-1987), Pop-art
387
7,098
2 747,000
3
Claude Monet  (1840-1926), Impressionism
300
7,020
2 106,080
4
Francis Bacon   (1909-1992), Expressionism
85
18,094
1 538,010
5
Gerhard Richter  (1932), Avant-garde
180
6,791
1 222,450
6
Alberto Giacometti  (1901-1966), Sculpture, Surrealism
129
8,318
1 073,030
7
Mark Rothko  (1903-1970),  Color Field, Abstract Expressionism
84
12,654
1 062,970
8
Henri Matisse  (1869-1954), Fauvism Impressionism
133
7,175
954,406
9
Jean-Michel Basquiat   (1960-1982), Neoexpressionism
148
5,985
885,765
10
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Impressionism
187
4,593
858,929
11
Amedeo Modigliani  (1984-1920), Expressionism
79
10,518
830,943
12
Paul Cézanne  (1839-1906), PostImpressionism
97
8,418
816,594
13
Vincent van Gogh  (1853-1890), Impressionism
63
12,305
775,221
14
Willem de Kooning  (1904-1997), Abstract expressionism
115
6,740
775,157
15
Roy Lichtenstein  (1923-1997), Pop-art
115
6,553
753,586
16
Joan Miró  (1893-1983), Dada, Surrealism
107
5,639
603,384
17
Fernand Léger  (1881-1955), Cubist
123
4,867
598,627
18
Jeff Koons  (1955), Neo-pop
86
6,945
597,316
19
Zhang Daqian  (1899-1983), Guchua, Impressionism
153
3,868
591,768
20
Edgar Degas  (1934-1917), Impressionism
119
4,906
583,783
21
Marc Chagall  (1887-1985), Expressionism
137
3,179
435,531
22
Alexander Calder  (1898-1973),  Sculpture, Cinetic art
129
3,342
431,081
23
Paul Gauguin  (1948-1903), PostImpressionism
58
7,360
426,909
24
Gustav Klimt  (1862-1918), Modern
20
20,864
417,297
25
Cy Twombly  (1928-2011), Sculpture, Abstract art
73
5,665
413,578
26
René Magritte   (1898-1967), Surrealism
97
4,094
397,092
27
Zao Woi-Ki  (1921-2013), Abstract expressionism
110
3,373
371,049
28
Qi Baishi  (1864-1957), Guchua
89
4,060
361,378
29
Egon Schiele  (1890-1918), Expressionism
61
5,895
359,612
30
Yves Klein  (1928-1962),  Pop-art, Minimal art
50
7,104
355,201
31
Camille Pissarro  (1830-1903), Impressionism
109
3,095
337,353
32
Lucio Fontana  (1899-1968), Sculpture, Abstract art
91
3,640
331,284
33
Wassily Kandinsky  (1866-1944), Expressionism, Abstract art
55
5,982
329,022
34
Edvard Munch  (1863-1944), Expressionism
37
8,288
306,672
35
Henry Moore  (1898-1986), Sculpture, Abstract art
80
3,704
296,360
36
Jackson Pollock  (1912-1956), Abstract expressionism
28
10,341
289,549
37
Edouard Manet  (1832-1883), Impressionism
27
10,248
276,691
38
Juan Gris  (1887-1927), Cubist
39
7,011
273,441
39
Lucian Freud  (1922-2011), Realism, Neorealism
38
6,944
263,884
40
Jasper Johns  (1932), Pop-art
43
6,134
263,765
41
Piet Mondrian  (1872-1944), Abstract art
32
7,985
255,508
42
Wu Guanzhong  (1919-2010), Post-impressionism, Modern Chinese painting
74
3,413
252,558
43
Canaletto  (1697-1768), Baroque
41
5,964
244,514
44
Damien Hirst  (1965), Conceptual art
68
3,347
227,628
45
Fu Baoshi  (1904-1965), Modern Chinese painting, "Boashi wrinkle"
71
3,144
223,224
46
Paul Signac  (1863-1935), Neo-impressionism,  Pointilism 
56
3,856
215,954
47
Xu Beihong  (1895-1953), Modern Chinese painting
55
3,737
205,540
48
Kees van Dongen   (1877-1968), Fauvism 
63
3,256
205,151
49
Georges Braque  (1882-1963), Fauvism, Cubist
54
3,796
204,994
50
Clyfford Still   (1904-1980), Abstract Expressionism
14
14,615
204,619