A painting by American artust Jackson Pollock has been sold for a record $181.2 million (about ₹1,745 crore) at a Christie’s auction in New York City, making it the fourth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The sale was completed on Monday.
The artwork, titled Number 7A, 1948, is regarded as one of Pollock’s landmark abstract expressionist paintings. Christie’s described the work as a breakthrough moment in modern art, saying it marked Pollock’s complete break from conventional easel painting.
The previous auction record for a Pollock painting stood at $61.2 million, set in 2021. Some of his works have reportedly fetched nearly $200 million in private sales.
The auction house also witnessed several other record-breaking sales. Danaïde, a bronze sculpture by Romanian-born artist Constantin Brâncuși, sold for $107.6 million, surpassing the artist’s earlier auction record of $71.2 million set in 2018.
Another major sale was No 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) by Mark Rothko, which fetched $98.4 million. Portrait of Madame K by Spanish artist Joan Miró sold for $53.5 million, also setting a new auction record for the artist.
The latest auction follows a series of high-value art sales seen globally over the past year. In November 2025, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold for $236.4 million, becoming the second most expensive artwork ever auctioned.
Meanwhile, The Dream (The Bed), a self-portrait by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, sold for $54.7 million, setting a record for a painting by a woman artist.
The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction remains Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which fetched $450 million in 2017.
Jackson Pollock is widely regarded as one of the most influential American painters of the 20th century and a leading figure in the abstract expressionist movement. Born in 1912 in Wyoming, he became famous for his distinctive “drip painting” technique, in which paint was poured, splashed or dripped directly onto large canvases laid on the floor.
Pollock’s unconventional style transformed modern art and challenged traditional ideas of painting. Though his career was relatively short, his works became symbols of post-war American art and continue to command some of the highest prices in the global art market. He died in a car accident in 1956 at the age of 44.