9 Things You Can Buy for the Price of Million-Dollar Paintings

Art is not only one of the most priceless things in the world, it can also be extremely expensive. Just imagine that you could buy a mansion or a vintage car for the price of one painting! Sounds crazy, right?

This is why the Bright Side team decided to compile a list of extremely expensive paintings and see what we could get instead if we had an extra couple of million dollars.

9. Jeanne (Spring), Edouard Manet, $69.4 million

Jeanne (Spring) by French artist Edouard Manet was painted in 1881. It was meant to become a part of a quadriptych, but the artist died with only half of the project finished.

What could you buy instead if you had this amount of money? Well, how about a vintage 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, which was sold for $52 million? This beauty now holds the record for the most expensive car ever sold.

8. Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh, $88.1 million

Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers is another painting series that’s on our list. There were 7 versions of them, all different in colors and quantities.

The Pink Star diamond, which was presented at a Hong Kong auction in 2017, holds the title for the most expensive diamond. This 59.60 carat pink gem was sold for a whopping $71.2 million.

7. Le Bassin aux Nymphéas, Claude Monet, $94.2 million

The Water Lily Pond is a painting by Claude Monet, one of a huge series of around 250 works.

If you love vampire legends, take a look at Dracula’s castle which you could buy for $90 million. The building’s real name is Bran Castle, and it was built in 1388. Not sure about the vampires, but with a little imagination, this place could surely send some shivers down your spine.

6. The Scream, Edvard Munch, $130 million

The Scream by Edvard Munch is so popular that everyone has probably heard about or seen it at least once in their life. When sold in 2012, this piece broke the Guinness World Record for the most expensive painting.

Well, $118.7 million can buy you the PJ World Explorer superyacht, which is scheduled to be built in 2020.

5. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt, $168.8 million

The Lady in Gold, which is another name for this masterpiece, has a complicated history. It was stolen in 1941 and wasn’t returned to the Bloch-Bauer family until 2006. They turned around and sold it almost immediately.

With the $168.8 million they got for it, you could buy the majestic Palazzo di Amore. This $129 million mansion is a piece of art itself, with its own spa, pools, vineyards, and even a waterfall.

4. Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, Rembrandt, $191 million

The portraits were painted in 1634 for the couple’s wedding and were purchased in 2015 by both France and the Netherlands. Both parties agreed that it’s better to not separate the duo, so they’re constantly traveling between Rijksmuseum and the Louvre.

With the $191 million you could probably buy Skorpios Island. It belongs to the Onassis family and is not for sale, but it’s surrounded by various rumors. One of them was that Giorgio Armani bought the island for $190 million.

3. Nafea Faa Ipoipo, Paul Gauguin, $223 million

The painting’s name is translated as, “When will you marry?” and it was created in 1892. The price was initially believed to be $300 million, but these were just rumors.

Anyway, if you’re a soccer fan, you might find this option interesting. For $222 million you could actually “buy” a soccer player. According to the list of the most expensive soccer transfers, in 2017 Paris Saint-Germain paid this exact amount to Barcelona to see Neymar on their team.

2. The Card Players, Paul Cézanne, $280 million

The Card Players is one of 5 Cézanne paintings on the topic, and it was bought by the State of Qatar in 2011.

For $260 million you could buy a piece of Hawaii. The Molokai Ranch is situated on an island with the same name and comprises 35% of the island. According to Business Insider, this purchase would make the buyer one of 5 major local land owners.

1. Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci, $463 million

This piece by Leonardo da Vinci is the current record-holder. It’s the most expensive painting of our time.

If you have some spare money and love a luxury life, you can buy the Tour Odéon penthouse in Monaco, which is priced somewhere between $335 million and $400 million. What a view!

Bonus: Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa is probably the world’s most famous painting. It would’ve been much less famous, if it were not for a 1911 theft. Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre worker, thought the masterpiece belonged to Italy.

The painting’s worth is believed to have been $830 million in 2018 taking inflation into consideration. However, some experts don’t agree. France 24 believes the piece could have cost nearly $1 billion back in 2014.

Let’s stick to a happy medium. This much money can buy you a whole lot of things, but what about building something? The new Seattle Center Arena project, for example, is estimated to cost $850 million.

Would you pay millions for a piece of art if you were insanely rich? Maybe you’d buy yourself a luxury home? Share your ideas with us!