The most expensive artworks sold at auction

"THREE STUDIES OF LUCIAN FREUD", a 1969 painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and fellow artist, was sold at auction in New York on November 12th for $142.4m. Christie’s, the auctioneer, said this was a record. Was it? Yes and no. For one thing, an auction record does not equal an overall record: in 2011 the Qatari royal family paid more than $250m for a Cézanne in a private sale. Secondly, our chart shows that although the Bacon triptych sold for the highest auction price in history, surpassing the $119.9m paid last year for Edvard Munch's "The Scream", it is not the most expensive ever auction sale in real terms (ie, accounting for inflation). That title is still held by Van Gogh's 1890 "Portrait du Docteur Gachet". The $82.5m paid for that painting in 1990 is the equivalent of $148.6m at today’s prices, enough to acquire a Bacon and still have change to buy a gallery to hang it in.