That’s where the money is

When I was a young art student, many of my contemporaries and certainly my parents dismissed so called modern art as a load of hog wash. They could not understand why anyone should get excited by it.
Obviously there are those who think differently and are prepared to pay a lot to own a piece of art history.
Here is a list of the top ten selling art pieces and you notice that, with the exception of the Chinese vase, they are all from that so called “modern art” period.

1. Edvard Munch's The Scream (1895), auctioned at Sotheby's Sales of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art on 2 May 2012 in New York City.  The painting sold for $119,922,500
2. Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) sold for $106,482,500.
3. L'homme qui Marche I (1961), by Alberto Giacometti sold for £65,001,250 ($105,182,398).
4. Picasso's Boy With a Pipe (1905) sold at Sotheby's New York for $104,168,000.
5. Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), went under the hammer at Christie's New York, 8 November 2006. The painting sold for $87,936,000
6. Francis Bacon's Triptych (1976) sold for $85.9m to oligarch Roman Abramovich.
7. A Chinese 18th century Qianlong dynasty porcelain vase, sold for £53,100,000 ($85,921,461) at Bainbridges auction house in London, 12 November 2010.
8. Dora Maar au Chat (1941) by Pablo Picasso, sold at Sotheby’s for £51,560,080 ($83,429,503).
9. Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet (1890) by Vincent van Gogh. This painting sold for $82,500,000 (£50,985,692) at Christie's in New York on 15 May 1990.
10. Claude Monet's Le Bassin aux Nymphéas (1919) sold at Christie's in London for £40,921,250 ($66,212,514).