[Image: Wikimedia Commons]
South Africa’s global hall of fame just got a major upgrade. Move over, Elon, Charlize, and Trevor – Marlene Dumas has officially entered the record books, paintbrush in hand and zero chill in sight.
The legendary artist just set the record for the most expensive work ever sold by a living female artist. Her provocative 1997 painting Miss January was snapped up at a Christie’s auction in New York on Wednesday, 14 May, for a cool $13.6 million (that’s roughly R230 million, if you’re doing the mental math while side-eyeing your rent).
The bidding opened at a spicy $9 million and wrapped up at $11.5 million before fees, according to The Art Newspaper. The winner? An anonymous bidder, of course. Probably sitting somewhere smug and champagne-soaked right now.
Christie’s was understandably thrilled to flex the sale, posting: “Set to become the highest price ever paid for a living female artist this 20th/21st Century Art season, Dumas’ painting triumphantly masters and reclaims the female form.”
No lies detected.
Marlene Dumas’ ‘Miss January’ has set a new #WorldRecord price achieved for any living female artist. The towering portrait of the beauty queen achieves US$13,635,000 during tonight’s 21st Century Evening Sale. pic.twitter.com/BnNbvuB0rr
— Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) May 14, 2025
ARTnews gave us her origin story: “Dumas started exploring and scrutinising the female form at age 10, with a drawing called ‘Miss World,’ which depicted idolised glamour models.
Over 30 years later, she returned to the subject with ‘Miss January’ (1997), a portrait that threads the line between revealing and concealing, and serves as perhaps the best example of her influential female portraiture.”
She’s been taking the male gaze apart since primary school, and now she’s made history doing it.
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Miss January, by the way, is no wallflower. The towering portrait features a beauty queen standing proud, stark naked from the waist down, save for a single pink sock. A soft gut-punch to the patriarchy, and now, the most expensive one ever painted by a living woman.
This jaw-dropping sale dethroned the previous record held by Jenny Saville, whose Propped (1992) went for £9.5 million ($12.4 million) at Sotheby’s London back in 2018, The South African notes. That’s right, Dumas didn’t just edge past it; she cleared it.
Before Wednesday’s historic auction, Dumas’s top price was a relatively humble $6.33 million, fetched in 2008 for The Visitor (1995), also at Sotheby’s London. Her market’s been solid but not exactly setting off fireworks, until now. Between 2022 and 2024, just 15 Dumas works hit the auction block. Of those, only five cracked the $1 million ceiling, and just two managed to beat their high estimates.
What makes the sale of Miss January even juicier? The painting came from the legendary Rubell Family Collection, one of the most elite art stashes on the planet. And if you know anything about the Rubells, you know they don’t let go of work lightly. According to past statements, they’ve sold fewer than 20 pieces, out of a hoard of more than 5,000, over five decades. This wasn’t just another day at the gallery.
Miss January had been hanging at their private museum in Miami during Art Basel in December, quietly flexing before stepping into auction history.
With this sale, Dumas isn’t just holding her own, she’s standing tall at the peak of the contemporary art market. One pink sock, $13.6 million, and a legacy cemented.
[Sources: The Art Newspaper]
