Original works of art can be valued by actual sale prices or their insured value. One of the best known paintings in the world is cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most valuable in the world -- and also in the BillionDollarArtGallery. In 1962, the Mona Lisa was insured for $100 million; taking inflation into account, da Vinci's Mona Lisa would be worth about $825 million in 2018.
Most famous paintings are held in museums, which rarely sell them, so they are considered priceless. The increasing concentration of wealth around the world has helped to drive up competition for paintings by the great masters when, on the rare occasion, they are auctioned. Another painting usually attributed to Leonardo da Vinci currently holds the record for the most expensive sale of a painting in history.
On November 15, 2017, Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) sold for $450.3 million by Christie's in New York to Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Farhan on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture & Tourism, setting a new record for the sale of a painting.
Other paintings have at times been surprisingly cheap. The sensuous "Flaming June" by Frederic Leighton disappeared from view in the early 1900s and was rediscovered only in the 1960s. It was auctioned shortly after, during a time known to be difficult for selling Victorian era paintings, where it failed to sell for its low reserve price of only US$140 (the equivalent of $1,126 in modern prices.) After the auction, Flaming June was purchased by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico, where it currently resides.
We estimate that the actual value of the all the works in the BillionDollarArtGallery would be about ten billion dollars -- if one could buy them.
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