The most expensive piece of furniture ever sold at auction is the Badminton Cabinet, which fetched about £19 million (roughly $36.7 million) at Christie’s in London in December 2004. As of October 2026 nobody has beaten it. This list ranks the five highest verified furniture sales we could document, from a baroque ebony monument to a lacquered armchair that sold for ten times its estimate.
| Rank | Item | Price (USD) | Sale date | Sold at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Badminton Cabinet | about $36.7 million | December 2004 | Christie’s, London |
| 2 | “Dragons” armchair by Eileen Gray | about $31.3 million | February 2009 | Christie’s, Paris |
| 3 | Florentine pietra dura cabinet | about $24.3 million (reported) | December 2004 | Christie’s, London |
| 4 | Goddard-Townsend desk-bookcase | $12.1 million | June 1989 | Christie’s, New York |
| 5 | Ming huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs | about $9.6 million (reported) | March 2015 | Christie’s, New York |
1. Badminton Cabinet: about $36.7 million
A 19-year-old duke ordered this cabinet in 1726, and thirty craftsmen needed six years to build it. Henry Somerset, the 3rd Duke of Beaufort, wanted a showpiece for Badminton House in Gloucestershire. The result stands 386 cm (152 inches) tall and is covered in pietra dura, a mosaic of finely cut and polished semi-precious stones set into ebony. A clock sits at the top between two gilded statues, under a coat of arms.
It stayed with the family for more than 250 years. In 1990 it sold for £8.58 million and became the priciest furniture on record. In December 2004 Christie’s sold it again for about £19 million, and the buyer was reported to be Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein. That second sale is still the all-time furniture record.
How we valued it: the published hammer-plus-premium figure at Christie’s London, converted to dollars at about the 2004 rate, so treat the dollar number as approximate.
2. “Dragons” armchair by Eileen Gray: about $31.3 million
The Irish designer Eileen Gray built this chair between 1917 and 1919, lacquering it by hand and letting each coat set in her humid bathroom. The arms are two intertwined dragons, their bodies carved with stylised clouds. The chair was first owned by her patron Suzanne Talbot. Dealer Cheska Vallois bought it in 1971 for $2,700 and sold it on to Yves Saint Laurent in 1973.
It came back to the market in February 2009 as part of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collection at Christie’s in Paris. The estimate was 2 to 3 million euros. It sold for 21.9 million euros, a record for 20th-century decorative art, and Vallois said afterwards that the price was “the price of desire.” She reportedly bought it for a third party. It remains the most expensive chair ever sold.
How we valued it: 21,905,000 euros including premium at the Christie’s Paris sale, which was reported at about $31.3 million at the time (some listings round it to $27.8 million).
3. Florentine pietra dura cabinet: about $24.3 million
One day before the Badminton Cabinet sold, Christie’s London offered a second monumental cabinet from the same school of Florentine stonework. It is a large baroque piece in ebony with semi-precious stone inlay and gilt-bronze mounts, and it reportedly made about $24.3 million. That makes December 2004 the week two cabinets took the second and third places on the all-time list.
The reason is shared: pietra dura workshops in Florence supplied princes and kings, and very few large cabinets stayed in private hands. When two came up in the same week, bidders knew they might not see another in their lifetime.
How we valued it: a single reported price from a sale-results compilation, so we give it as approximate.
4. Goddard-Townsend desk-bookcase: $12.1 million
This is the top American furniture sale. John Goddard of Newport, Rhode Island, made a six-shell desk-bookcase for the Providence merchant Nicholas Brown Sr. The Newport cabinetmakers Goddard and Townsend are known for the block-and-shell design, and only a handful of pieces from the family survive in this form. The Brown family sold it in June 1989 for $12.1 million. Some listings give $11.4 million, which may be the hammer price before the premium.
The piece later entered a museum collection, which is why it has not come to auction again. A related Townsend secretary bookcase from 1740 sold for $8.25 million in New York.
How we valued it: the $12.1 million figure with premium at Christie’s New York in 1989, not adjusted for inflation.
5. Ming huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs: about $9.6 million
Huanghuali is a dense, golden rosewood that Chinese craftsmen used for scholar furniture in the Ming era. A pair of horseshoe-back armchairs in the wood sold at Christie’s New York in March 2015 for a reported $9.6 million. A huanghuali plank-top table fetched about $9 million at the same house in 2013. The market for this furniture is driven by collectors in Asia, and clean examples with original joinery are almost impossible to find.
How we valued it: a price repeated in several sale rankings, which we could not match to the house’s own page, so we label it approximate.
Records set in 2025 and 2026
We found no sale in 2025 or 2026 that beats the 2004 record, so the top five is unchanged. Design furniture is moving, though. At Sotheby’s in May 2025 a Maria Pergay dining table set an artist record at about 419,100 euros (around $490,000), and a Pierre Yovanovitch side table sold at Phillips in June 2025 for $60,960, nearly three times the maker’s previous record. New York’s June 2025 design auctions at the three big houses together brought in about $65 million, a 64% jump on the year before. In June 2021, a François-Xavier Lalanne bronze dining table reached about $6.6 million at Christie’s, more than four times its high estimate, and it sits just below our top five.
What drives these prices
- Provenance beats age. The Dragons chair is 100 years old, not 300, yet it outsold most antiques because Yves Saint Laurent owned it for decades.
- Scale and labour. Six years of work by thirty craftsmen cannot be reproduced, so the Badminton Cabinet has no real substitutes.
- Museums take the best pieces. Once a top example enters a museum it stops trading, which keeps the supply of record-level lots tiny.
- A collector base that rotates. Baroque cabinets led in 2004, Art Deco and design in 2009, Chinese scholar furniture in the 2010s, and French sculptural design in the 2020s.
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What is the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold?
The Badminton Cabinet, sold at Christie’s London in December 2004 for about £19 million, or roughly $36.7 million.
What is the most expensive chair in the world?
The “Dragons” armchair by Eileen Gray, which sold for 21.9 million euros at Christie’s Paris in February 2009.
What is the most expensive American furniture?
A Goddard-Townsend desk-bookcase from Newport, Rhode Island, which sold for $12.1 million in 1989.
Has a furniture record been set recently?
Not for the all-time record. The 2004 sale still leads as of October 2026, although several designers set personal records at auction in 2025.
Why do some furniture pieces cost tens of millions?
Rarity, exceptional craftsmanship and famous provenance. Most pieces on this list are one of a kind, and the best ones rarely return to the market.
Can a normal buyer own valuable antique furniture?
Yes. Good period pieces trade from a few thousand dollars at regional auctions, and the record sales above are the extreme top of the market.
How we put this list together
We ranked each piece by the verified price it reached at auction, using sale results compiled in an internal valuation model. Prices are approximate, converted from other currencies at the time of sale, and can differ slightly between listings.
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Last updated: October 2026.
