A Jackson Pollock painting has become the most expensive work of 20th-century art ever sold at auction, fetching £142 million at Christie’s in New York on Tuesday evening. The sale places the piece among the top five most valuable artworks ever auctioned globally.
The untitled work, executed in 1950 during Pollock’s celebrated drip-painting period, was offered from a private collection. Its final price exceeded the pre-sale estimate of £120 million, driven by competitive bidding from a small group of collectors. Christie’s declined to identify the buyer.
This transaction overtakes the previous record for a post-war artwork set in 2019 when Jeff Koons’s ‘Rabbit’ sold for £73 million. However, it remains below the all-time auction record of £365 million achieved by Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ in 2017.
The sale reflects sustained demand for blue-chip modern art despite broader economic uncertainties. Art market analysts point to a concentration of wealth among a small number of high-net-worth individuals as a key factor driving prices for rare, top-tier pieces.
Pollock’s drip paintings are considered iconic within the Abstract Expressionist movement. The artist died in 1956 at the age of 44. His works rarely appear at auction, with most held by museums or major foundations.
Christie’s, which handled the sale, has been a dominant force in the high-end art market. The auction house reported global sales of over £5 billion last year.
