Russell Ash has been the brains behind Top 10 of Everything since its first edition 20 years ago. He has enjoyed a successful career in publishing and written or contributed to over 100 books.
Every year, compiling Top 10 of Everything is a fascinating process. Russell and his global team of fact experts navigate their way around the potential for misinformation, misunderstanding and mishap to get you the facts that count.
Each month, Russell’s blog charts the challenges he has faced in his quest to distil the world of information into perfect bite-sized chunks.
For more information about Russell Ash and his full range of books, please visit www.russellash.com
1. USA 1994 – 68,991 average attendance
2. Brazil 1950 – 60,773
3. Germany 2006 – 52,384
4. Mexico 1970 – 52,311
5. England 1966 – 50,458
6. Italy 1990 – 48,411
7. West Germany 1974 – 46,684
8. Mexico 1986 – 46,297
9. France 1998 – 43,517
10. Argentina 1978 – 42,374
1. Brazil – 206 points
2. Germany/West Germany – 184 points
3. Italy – 151 points
4. Argentina – 112 points
5. England – 92 points
6. France – 85 points
7. Spain – 78 points
8. Sweden – 61 points
9. Netherlands – 58 points
10. Russia/USSR – 57 points
1. Ronaldo – 15 goals
2. Gerd Muller – 14 goals
3. Just Fontaine – 13 goals
4. Pele – 12 goals
5. Sandor Kocsis – 11 goals
6. Jurgen Klinsmann – 11 goals
7. Helmut Rahn – 10 goals
8. Teofilio Cubillas – 10 goals
9. Grzegorz Lato – 10 goals
10. Gary Lineker – 10 goals
1. American Airlines – 616 planes
2. Southwest Airlines – 539 planes
3.Delta Airlines – 457 planes
4. United Airlines – 407 planes
5. Continental Airlines – 380 planes
6. US Airways – 361 planes
7. Lufthansa – 344 planes
8. Northwest Airlines – 336 planes
9. Air Canada – 334 planes
10. China Southern Airlines – 299 planes
I have been tracking the mega-prices paid at auction for paintings since Top 10 of Everything began back in 1989, when Van Gogh’s Irises, which had sold two years earlier for $53.9 million, held the record. Now, that sort of price wouldn’t get anywhere near the Top 10, the latest version of which I have just compiled and looks like this:
| Artist/ painting/ sale year | Price ($) | |
| 1 | Pablo Picasso, Garçon à la pipe, 2004 | 104,168,000 |
| 2 | Pablo Picasso, Dora Maar au chat, 2006 | 95,216,000 |
| 3 | Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 2006 | 87,936,000 |
| 4 | Francis Bacon, Triptych, 2008 | 86,281,000 |
| 5 |
Vincent van Gogh, Portrait du Dr Gachet, 1990 | 82,500,000 |
| 6 | Claude Monet, Le Bassin aux Nymphéas, 2008 | 80,379,591 |
| 7 | Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, 1990 | 78,100,000 |
| 8 | Sir Peter Paul Rubens, The Massacre of the Innocents, 2002 | 75,930,440 |
| 9 | Mark Rothko, White Center (Yellow, pink and lavender on rose), 2007 | 72,840,000 |
| 10 | Andy Warhol, Green Car Crash – Green Burning Car I, 2007 | 71,720,000 |
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was revealed as the buyer of Francis Bacon’s Triptych. The price he paid is a record for a post-war painting. The previous day he had purchased Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping for $33.6 million, a record price for a work by a living artist.
Even higher prices are reputed to have been paid for works of art sold privately. Such sales are rarely publicized, but it is believed that in 2006 US music mogul David Geffen sold Jackson Pollock’s No.5, 1948 for $140 million.
A private sale that never happened was that of Pablo Picasso’s painting Le rêve. Its owner, Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn, agreed to sell it privately for $139 million, but while showing it to a group of friends, Mr Wynn made a sweeping gesture and accidentally poked his elbow through the canvas, resulting in a 15-cm (6-inch) tear – and the cancellation of the sale.
The first ever Top 10 of Everything came about as a result of a lunch with a publisher friend. By the time we got to the dessert course, I dropped into the conversation:
“I’ve got an idea for a one-volume reference book – it’s called The Top 10 of Everything.” I didn’t say another word – I didn’t even get as far describing what would be in it before he made me an offer. It was a reasonable offer, but as I said to him, “It will take quite a while to research what lists I should or could do…” – so he immediately doubled his offer. Nowadays publishers have to report back to their sales and accounts people and number-crunch before they can make an offer, but in those days they were allowed that sort of latitude – and in the case of Top 10 it worked. There had been no intention of making it an annual, but the first edition was a bestseller – it even reached No.1 in Ireland! – and it has been published every year ever since. It remains unusual in being an annual that is compiled by an individual, rather than by an anonymous team, and what goes into each edition is still very much a personal decision.
Over the coming weeks, I hope to give you a few insights into what this involves and some of the often unlikely byways I follow in my ongoing quest for Top 10 lists.
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