The Most Expensive Item On Amazon Was A Piece Of Art You Won't Expect

Where collectibles are concerned, there are a number of ways to make money selling items online, particularly on massive platforms like Amazon. According to AMZ Scout, Amazon sold 4.5 billion products in the U.S. in 2023, with 50% of sellers on the platform earning between $10,000 to over $250,000 per month. While certain household items can make you a mint on Amazon, as an individual you would realistically need to sell a lot to earn that kind of cash. One market that might earn you that sum of money on Amazon is fine art — a category in which the most expensive item on Amazon actually exists.

Amazon began selling fine art in 2013 after partnering with over 150 U.S. galleries to virtually display over 40,000 pieces of art. Unfortunately, Amazon's initial foray into the art scene didn't garner the sort of attention it expected, likely due to both the academic exclusivity of the art world and the lack of professional curators that would recommend purchasing art from the platform. With that said, the COVID-19 pandemic helped make virtual sales of fine art more viable, with fine art making up 32% of online art and collectible sales, according to a 2020 Hiscox online trade report. Jeff Bezos himself is a serious art collector, once purchasing a $52.5 million Ed Ruscha painting. It's no wonder then that the most expensive item listed on Amazon in 2024 was a piece of fine art.

If you were to discover this piece of art by Russian artist Gafur Timeryanov in your home, and you knew how to tell if a piece of art is worth money, you would probably be pretty happy with your luck. Timeryanov, a painter who happens to be blind, paints using touch. This makes this artist, and his work, even more incredible. Plus, Timeryanov builds the frames for his canvases himself. While this would be enough to make any piece of art that Timeryanov created valuable, its difficult to say if buyers would think his work is worth the $32 million price tag it was listed for on Amazon.

"The Way" is an expressionist oil painting that employs a style of painting known as Bashkir expressionism, which goes back to the 17th Century. Listed on Amazon in 2024, the mysterious work has since vanished from the site, with searches on legitimate online art markets, like Saatchi Arts, only displaying artists unrelated to Timeryanov. The artwork now exists on an online store for Russian art, Art Hit, and on Fineartamerica – selling for the same price originally listed on Amazon. According to a post on X, the original Amazon listing included the option of a 12 month $2.66 million installment plan. 

The disappearance of the artwork from Amazon, and its subsequent listing on lesser known virtual e-galleries and stores should lead anyone to be suspicious. With the sneaky ways Amazon tricks people into spending money, the mysterious posting of a $32 million artwork, and the fact that the artist claims he only earns enough from his works to cover the cost of his materials – should cause anyone to be suspicious. Unlike far more famous artists like Warhol or Basquiat, there's no trace of Timeryanov's work anywhere else but these few websites, and the artist doesn't appear to be represented by any specific gallery — which is strange for an artist with artwork supposedly worth $32 million. 

According to ArtConnect, there are a number of factors that go into pricing an artist's work. Size, materials, and time are main ways to do this. However, particularly in the case of Timeryanov's work, other factors like transparency — known by collectors, curators, and auction houses as an artwork's provenance — can be significant. For instance, who listed "The Way", who took the listing down, and how did the oil painting earn a $32 million price tag to begin with? As these questions all remain unanswered, it might be best to stick to buying your home goods and cleaning supplies on Amazon.