The 15 Richest Living Artists

Complex Magazine has compiled a list of the richest artists living today. The full list is:

  1. Damien Hirst – 1 Billion USD
  2. Jeff Koons – 500 Million USD
  3. Jasper Johns – 300 Million USD
  4. David Choe – 200 Million USD
  5. Andre Vicari – 142 Million USD
  6. Takashi Murakami – 100 Million USD
  7. Anish Kapoor – 85 Million USD
  8. Antony Gormley – 50 Million USD
  9. Gerhard Richter – 40 Million USD
  10. David Hockney – 40 Million USD
  11. Cindy Sherman – 35 Million USD
  12. Richard Prince – 30 Million USD
  13. Andreas Gursky – 30 Million USD
  14. Chuck Close – 25 Million USD
  15. Georg Baselitz – 25 Million USD

You can read the background about the values of each artist at Complex here

Number one probably isn’t a surprise (more later), but number 4 on the list, David Choe [bottom picture], is an interesting (and very recent) addition. Why? Facebook.

From The Washington Post:

One of the most interesting stories to come out of the Facebook IPO windfall is that of David Choe, the scrappy street artist who was given the choice of cash or stock for the murals he created in the company’s first headquarters.

He wisely chose stock — despite believing that Facebook was “ridiculous,” according to the New York Times — and now, when public trading begins later this year, his stock will be valued at about $200 million.

Damien Hirst, on the other hand, is no surprise to be at the top in my opinion, becoming a Master in the Business of Art and Art of Business (I heard a rumour about his famous diamond clad piece For The Love Of God [top picture with artist] was a clever tax avoidance scheme as artist’s materials, all £50 millions worth of diamonds, can be claimed back). That isn’t to dismiss Hirst’s intelligence (I genuinely think he has a great mind for ideas), although flooding the art market with manufactured Spot Paintings is taking Brand Hirst a little too far …

While on the subject of Hirst, it’s worth seeing (if you haven’t already) Hennessy Youngman’s Art Thoughtz on him in the video embedded below (and yes, it points out the importance of money, in the artist’s own words):

Related: Damien Hirst talks about Spot Paintings in a video interview for Nowness Magazine.

Source: complex.com

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    15 RICHEST LIVING ARTIST IN THE WORLD. RIDICULOUS.
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    Top 15 Richest Artists...15 Richest Living Artists Complex Magazine
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