A King's Ransom

10 Most expensive paintings (sale prices expressed in dollars and adjusted for inflation):

1. The Card Players, Paul Cezanne $268.1 million (2011)
2. No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollock: $161.7 million (2006)
3. Woman III, Willem de Kooning: $158.8 million (2006)
4. Le Rêve, Pablo Picasso $155.0 million (2013)
5. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt: $154.9 million (2006)
6. Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent van Gogh: $148.6 million (1990)
7. Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: $140.7 million (1990)
8. Garçon à la pipe, Pablo Picasso: $128.2 million (2004)
9. The Scream, Edvard Munch: $121.4 million (2012)
10. Flag, Jasper Johns $117.6 (2010)

Ryoei Saito, a Japanese businessman who purchased the Renoir and Van Gogh casually remarked he wanted the paintings to be put in his coffin and cremated with him when he died. He retracted the comment when it caused an international uproar, saying it was only a joke for the tax authorities, but few people thought it was funny. He had already locked the two paintings away from the public in a warehouse like the fabled ark in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark,", invisible to those who might appreciate its power. Although he made a vague commitment to put them on show 'in about 10 years' time'. Saito died in 1996 and it unclear who the current owner is but representatives of Saito's company assured the world that they are still around.