Breaking an auction record in the living artist category is a merit that never goes unnoticed. This is not exclusively due to the amount itself that the artist has generated, but mainly because the behavior of the market will always be inclined to invest in those deceased artists who, over the decades (or centuries), have proven to have significant economic growth and have a track record with high historical value. Therefore, getting collectors and art buyers to decide to invest significant sums of money in a living artist speaks to how much the artist has managed to prove his economic value in a very short period of time, at least in terms of the art market.

Since 1989, 30 years ago, only 5 artists have been able to break the record in this category.

5. Willem de Kooning (1904 – 1997)

Willem de Kooning, representative of American abstract expressionism, has been the artist who has held the record for the most sought-after living artist for the longest time. In 1989, his work Interchange (1955) sold for $20,680,000 dollars when the artist was 85 years old.

4. Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011)

On May 13, 2008, Lucian Freud, the greatest representative of the British figurative movement of the 20th century, broke the record with his work Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995), sold in 2008 for $33,641,000 dollars when the artist was 73 years old.

3. Gerhard Richter (1932 -)

German Gerhard Richter was the first artist to break his own record as the most expensive living artist at the time. In a period of just 2 years, Richter not only broke the previous mark (established by Freud in 1995), but in the following year he surpassed it again. His first record was with Abstraktes Bild, which was sold in 2012 for $34,165,171, and his second was with Domplatz Mailand (1968) which was sold in 2013 for $37,125,000 dollars. Richter was 80 years old the first time he broke the record.

2. David Hockney (1937 -)

In 2018, the versatile English artist, David Hockney, surprised auction houses with an incredible $90,312,500 million sale for his work Portrait of an Artist (1972). Not only is the amount itself impressive, it is important to mention that in addition to achieving a difference of almost 32 million dollars with the previous record (at that time, the title was held by Jeff Koons with $58.4 million for Balloon Dog Orange), Hockney was the first living artist to reach close to $100 million dollars, something that had been considered impossible to achieve until now. Hockney achieved this sale at the age of 81.

1. Jeff Koons (1955 -)

Jeff Koons, an American businessman known for his stainless steel works in the shapes of everyday objects, stands out by far in this category for multiple reasons. In addition to being one of the most scandalous artists for his works (which, according to several critics, oscillates between kitsch and pop), he is the youngest living artist to hold the record and the one who has broken it the most times (3 times). The first time Koons broke the record was in 2007 with Hanging Heart (2006) for $23,561,000 dollars. Koons was only 52 years old, and the record, which still belonged to De Kooning, had not been surpassed for 18 years. Then in 2014, Koons broke the mark again, this time with Balloon Dog (1994 -2000) at $58,405,000.

Finally, on May 15 of this year, just 4 months after Hockney achieved his incredible sale of $90.3 million, the auction house Christie's presented Rabbit (1986) with the phrase “the opportunity to own the controversy.” . Rabbit was sold that day for $91,075,000 million, positioning Koons for the third time as the most expensive living artist of the moment, at only 64 years old.

  With information from: Artprice, 2019.