The 15 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

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In 2006, media mogul David Geffen sold Jackson Pollock’s masterwork, No. 5 1948, for $140 million.  This made Pollock’s work the most expensive painting in modern history, leading a list of the world’s most highly acclaimed artists.  From Pollock to Picasso, Renoir to Van Gogh, famouse fine art fetches an other-wordly price on today’s market.  In celebration of their masterworks and the riches now behind them, here is a list of the 15 most expensive paintings in the world.

To round out this list, we’ve arranged these paintings by an adjusted price in 2008 dollars.  The U.S. dollar has inflated quite a bit since 1987, when Van Gogh’s Irises sold for $53.9 million.  Today, that $53.9 million is worth roughly $102.3 million.

Number Fifteen: Yo, Picasso by Pablo Picasso

Picasso’s 1901 self-portrait may not be his most instantly recognizable, but it certainly did capture a hefty price on the fine art market.  Long before Picasso began experimenting with cubism and surrealism, his early oil works were equally as stunning.  An interesting anecdote about Picasso– his full name is “Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso”.  No joke.

• Artist: Pablo Picasso
• Year: 1901
• Year of Sale: 1989
• Sale Price: $47.85 million
• Currency Adjusted: $83.2 million

Number Fourteen: A Wheatfield with Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh

One of two Van Gogh landscapes in the top 15 is A Wheatfield by Cypresses, an idyllic nature scene with the artist’s signature swirling skies.  Wheatfield was owned by philanthropist/diplomat Walter Annenberg until his death in 2002, and is now a part of his estate.

• Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
• Year: 1889
• Year of Sale: 1993
• Sale Price: $57 million
• Currency Adjusted: $85.1 million

Number Thirteen: False Start by Jasper Johns

The lone contemporary piece in the top 15 was among a large collection of art sold by media mogul David Geffen in 2006.  If you’re like us, you might just be scratching your head about the pricetag on this one…

• Artist: Jasper Johns
• Year: 1959
• Year of Sale: 2006
• Sale Price: $80 million
• Currency Adjusted: $85.6 million

Number Twelve: Les Noces de Pierrette by Pablo Picasso

Picasso’s Les Noces de Pierrette is among the artist’s blue period, including some of his most famous works.  At the time, Picasso was facing poverty and the loss of a close friend who had recently committed suicide.  It was works like this that would prove cathartic for the artist- and lead him to wealth later in life.

• Artist: Pablo Picasso
• Year: 1905
• Year of Sale: 1989
• Sale Price: $49.3 million
• Currency Adjusted: $85.7 million

Number Eleven: Triptych by Francis Bacon

As one of the premier artists of the surrealist period, Irish painter Francis Bacon explored the tri-panel format of painting called the Triptych.  His work of the same name is the most recent sale on this list, going for $86.3 million.

• Artist: Francis Bacon
• Year: 1976
• Year of Sale: 2008
• Sale Price: $86.3 million
• Currency Adjusted: $86.3 million

Number Ten: Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents is both the earliest work on this list as well as its only religious-inspired painting.  Painted in 1611, Massacre represents a scene from the Bible’s Gospel According to Matthew.

• Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
• Year: 1611
• Year of Sale: 2002
• Sale Price: $76.7 million
• Currency Adjusted: $91.9 million

Number Nine: Portrait de l’artiste sans barbe by Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh’s beardless self-portrait shows the artist hiding something– namely a nasty, Absinthe-fueled shaving accident.  In the year of this portrait, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear amidst a bout of severe depression that would later lead to his suicide.

• Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
• Year: 1889
• Year of Sale: 1998
• Sale Price: $71.5 million
• Currency Adjusted: $94.6 million

Number Eight: Dora Maar au Chat by Pablo Picasso

One of Picasso’s greatest works was a portrait of his then-mistress Dora Maar.  Miss Maar was 29-years-old at the time, 26 years younger than Picasso.  The subject was seated with a black cat perched on her shoulder.

• Artist: Pablo Picasso
• Year: 1941
• Year of Sale: 2006
• Sale Price: $95.2 million
• Currency Adjusted: $101.8 million

Number Seven: Irises by Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh’s second landscape on this list is named simply Irises, showing at first glance a rather sunny world that was much in contrast to the artist’s disposition.

• Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
• Year: 1889
• Year of Sale: 1987
• Sale Price: $53.9 million
• Currency Adjusted: $102.3 million

Number Six: Garçon à la pipe by Pablo Picasso

The “boy at the pipe” is Picasso’s most highly priced painting on this list, having sold for $104.2 million in 2004 (currency adjusted to $118.9 million).  The boy in the painting was among the community of entertainers living in the Montmartre section of Paris, many of which were the subjects of Picasso’s red period.

• Artist: Pablo Picasso
• Year: 1905
• Year of Sale: 2004
• Sale Price: $104.2 million
• Currency Adjusted: $118.9 million

Number Five: Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Renoir’s sole entry in the top 15 most expensive paintings is his work Bal au moulin de la Galette.  This painting was sold in 1990 to Ryoei Saito, the chairman of a Japanese paper company and a collector of fine art.

• Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Year: 1876
• Year of Sale: 1990
• Sale Price: $78.1 million
• Currency Adjusted: $128.8 million

Number Four: Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh

This and the last painting were at one point the two most expensive paintings in the world, sold together to Ryoei Saito in 1990.  This would become Van Gogh’s most expensive painting to date, selling for an impressive $82.5 million ($136.1 million today).

• Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
• Year: 1890
• Year of Sale: 1990
• Sale Price: $82.5 million
• Currency Adjusted: $136.1 million

Number Three: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt

Once the world’s most expensive painting, Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer took three years to create in oil and gold.  The painting was commissioned by a Swiss sugar magnate, a fan of Klimt and the husband of the painting’s subject.

• Artist: Gustav Klimt
• Year: 1907
• Year of Sale: 2006
• Sale Price: $135 million
• Currency Adjusted: $144.4 million

Number Two: Woman III by Willem de Kooning

This, the second most-expensive painting in the world was among the collection sold by David Geffen in 2006.  Woman III by Willem de Kooning was among six painted by the artist between 1951 and 1953, with this version ending up at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art– where it would be later hid from the public due to its inadherence to the government’s rules of morality.

• Artist: Willem de Kooning
• Year: 1953
• Year of Sale: 2006
• Sale Price: $137.5 million
• Currency Adjusted: $147 million

Number One: No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock’s 1948 painting entitled No. 5 1948 was arguably his greatest masterwork, the most vivid expression of the painter’s unique style.  When it was sold by David Geffen in 2006, it became the world’s most expensive painting in history at a price-adjusted $149.70 million dollars.

• Artist: Jackson Pollock
• Year: 1948
• Year of Sale: 2006
• Sale Price: $140 million
• Currency Adjusted: $149.70 million

Of these top 15, you’ve seen Vincent Van Gogh mentioned quite a bit.  Van Gogh leads this list with $418.1 million worth of art, followed by Pablo Picasso with $389.6 million.  Note also that Gustav Klimt’s painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I should have placed twice on this list, as a second version painted by Klimt also sold for $94 million.  In the interest of completeness, we excluded the second version.

source:StyleCravers

“House” star Hugh Laurie joins TV’s richest list

He is the star of the biggest drama on television. Now Hugh Laurie is poised to become one of the highest-paid actors on TV with a new deal to continue on Fox’s “House.”

The British actor’s salary is expected to rise to about $400,000 an episode, or more than $9 million a year, under a pact with producer Universal Media Studios.

Laurie, 49, who had humble beginnings on “House” with a starting salary in the mid-five figures in 2004, got his first major salary bump in summer 2006 when his per-episode fee was upped to $250,000-$300,000 an episode.

The list of highest-paid actors on drama series is now topped by departing “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” leading man William Petersen ($600,000 per episode) and “24’s” Kiefer Sutherland (close to $500,000), who both serve as executive producers on their series.

Just as Sutherland’s Jack Bauer is synonymous with “24,” curmudgeonly medical genius Dr. Gregory House is at the heart of “House.” The role has earned Laurie two Golden Globes and three Emmy nominations.

He also would get some sort of producing credit on the medical drama, which returns for a fifth season Tuesday. The deal also adds another year to Laurie’s contract on the series, assuring he will stay on at least through the 2011-12 season.

This past season, the medical drama averaged 16.7 million viewers, the second-highest-rated scripted series behind ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.”

Apple’s Sleek Upgrade

Buying software is not like buying a vase or a comb or a lawnmower where you pay, you take it home, and the transaction is complete.

No, buying software is more like joining a club with annual dues. Every year, there’s a new version, and if you don’t upgrade, you feel like a behind-the-curve loser.

There’s a time bomb ticking in that business model, however. To keep you upgrading, the software company has to pile on more features each time. Sooner or later, you wind up with a huge, sloshing, incoherent mess of a program; a pile of spaghetti code that doesn’t run well and makes nobody happy.

You’re in even worse shape if that bloatware is your operating system — the software you run all day. Just ask anyone with Windows Vista.

This year, though, Apple and Microsoft both realized that the pile-on-features model is unsustainable. Both are releasing new versions of their operating systems that are unapologetically billed as cleaned-up, slimmed-down versions of what came before.

Microsoft’s, called Windows 7, comes out in October. Apple’s, called Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, arrives on Friday, a month earlier than announced. (Apple to Microsoft: “Surprise!”)

Apple’s release strategy is highly unorthodox: “Leopard, a k a Mac OS X 10.5, was already a great OS-virus-free, nag-free and not copy-protected. So instead of adding features for their own sake, let’s just make what we’ve got smaller, faster and more refined.”

What? No new features? That’s not how the industry works! Doesn’t Apple know anything?

And then there’s the price of Snow Leopard: $30.

Have they lost their minds? Operating-system upgrades always cost a hundred-something dollars! ($30 is the price if you already have Leopard. If not, the price is $170 for a Mac Box Set that also includes two suites of Apple software: iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb and the GarageBand music studio), and iWork (the Numbers spreadsheet, Pages word processor and Keynote presentation software).

In any case, Snow Leopard truly is an optimized version of Leopard. It starts up faster (72 seconds on a MacBook Air, versus 100 seconds in Leopard). It opens programs faster (Web browser, 3 seconds; calendar, 5 seconds; iTunes, 7 seconds), and the second time you open the same program, the time is halved.

“Optimized” doesn’t just mean faster; it also means smaller. Incredibly, Snow Leopard is only half the size of its predecessor; following the speedy installation (15 minutes), you wind up with 7 gigabytes more free space on your hard drive. That, ladies and gents, is a first.

Unfortunately, Snow Leopard runs only on Macs with Intel chips — that is, Macs sold since 2006. If you have an older Mac, you’re stuck with Leopard forever.

(Techie note: Popular conception has it that the space savings comes from removing all the code required by those earlier chips. But that’s not true, according to Apple. Yes, that code is gone, but new 64-bit code, described below, easily replaces it. No, Apple says that the savings comes from “tightening up the screws,” compressing chunks of the system software and eliminating a huge stash of printer drivers. Now the system downloads printer drivers as needed, on demand.)

As it turns out, Apple programmers could not leave well enough alone. They disobeyed the original “no new features” mantra. As they pored through all the bits of Mac OS X, they kept stopping and fixing little things that had always bugged them, or coming up with neat little ways to make things better. So:

The Mac now adjusts its own clock when you travel, just like a cellphone. The menu bar can now show the date, not just the day of the week. The menu of nearby wireless hot spots now shows the signal strength for each. When you’re running Windows on your Mac, you can now open the files on the Macintosh “side” without having to restart. Icons can now be 512 pixels (several inches) square, turning any desktop window into a light table for photos.

Source : nytimes

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Duracell mygrid

No, someone didn’t just Photoshop the  Duracell logo on a Wild charge pad — this actually is the newest product from the ubiquitous battery maker. Available this October, myGrid kits (including charger and one power sleeve) will be available for Nokia, Motorola, and Blackberry handsets, as well as the many flavors of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. No price yet, but you’ll know as soon as we do.

The MyGrid that you see here is one of those that can charge several mobiles at one time including products from Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, as well as the iphone and ipod touch. It should be available in October for $80.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson: The Greatest of All Time

It still has not hit me. It feels so strange. Michael Jackson is dead. He was only 50 years old, a milestone age. He just celebrated the 25^th anniversary of “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time, and re-released it in February.

He was scheduled to start his show run in London in a few weeks.

Maybe Michael’s career had reached its peak, but I was not convinced that he was done with music. When he turned 50 last August, I did a series of interviews with radio stations. All of the DJs asked me if I thought Michael Jackson could make a comeback. They wanted to know if he could get past the controversies that dominated his news coverage over the last 10-plus years. My answer was a matter-of-fact “yes.”

People often underestimate the power of music, and the effect that it has on us. We sometimes forget how a great song with a feel-good message lifts us up, and makes us smile and remember the place we had the most fun dancing to it and with whom.

Michael Jackson is one of the few artists in the history of the art form to be able to take one song, like “Billie Jean,” and reach people of all age groups, races, and nationalities.

Michael has done this time and time again for decades, as both a solo artist and member of The Jackson 5.

This type of legacy cannot be erased by even the most horrible of charges and allegations. His music and performances are historic and forever engrained in our hearts.

Rick Sanchez, a floor manager at the popular Amoeba Music in Hollywood, says that his staff was “equally shocked” when they heard the news of Jackson’s passing. “A lot of people are buying his music which usually happens in these situations,” Sanchez says, referring to the breaking news of a musician’s death.

Sanchez adds that all of Jackson’s music always sells well at his location.

Rosemary Jean-Louis, a Michael Jackson fan and blogger from Atlanta, is nervous, hoping the news reports that Jackson has died are not true. “I don’t want to believe it because it’s Michael Jackson,” Jean-Louis says. “He has been the guy considered invincible who always seems to come back. He is only 50. He was on the verge of such a big comeback with his concerts. No matter what he’s gone through or what the crazy circumstances and dark period of his life with that poor trial-that taken aside-he is one of the musical geniuses of our times, truly the King of Pop.”

I never learned to do his moonwalk dance move, but like everyone else, I was blown away when I saw him unveil it on Motown’s famous 25th anniversary TV special in 1984.

I was too shy of a kid to get one of the red-and-black stripped jackets like the one he wore in the “Thriller” video, but I thought it was cool.

I did, however, have an afro Jheri curl in 1979, when Jackson released his album “Off the Wall,” which included jams like “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” and “Workin’ Day and Night.” I was 10, and whenever the high school girls on my block told me that I was cute and looked like Michael Jackson, I blushed and took it as a huge compliment.

My 6 1/2-year-old twins know and love his music as do the rest of us. This will never change.

I know he had been dealing with a lot these last few years. I hope that at the time of his passing he was in a happy place. Reportedly, he had been rehearsing in Los Angeles for the last two months, preparing for his London dates. His 50-year-old life may have been short, but it was impactful. His accomplishments are tremendous.

I offer my sincere condolences to his children, parents, siblings, and other family members, and to his friends and fans.

posted Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:55pm PDT by Billy Johnson, Jr.

Nowruz 1388

I want to discuss for you the the Nowruz , the persian new year , i found wiki as the best source so i used that.

Nowrūz (Persian: نوروز /noʊruz/ ↔ [noʊɾuːz]; with various local pronunciations and spellings, meaning ‘New Day’) is the traditional Iranian new year holiday celebrated by Iranian peoples, having its roots in Ancient Iran. Since the Achaemenid era the official year has begun with the New Day when the Sun leaves the zodiac of Pisces and enters the zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the Spring Equinox. Apart from the Iranian cultural continent (Greater Iran), the celebration has spread in many other parts of the world, including parts of Central Asia, South Asia, Northwestern China, the Crimea, and some ethnic groups in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia.

Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Iranian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday and having significance amongst the Zoroastrian ancestors of modern Iranians. The moment the Sun crosses the equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year and Persian families gather together to observe the rituals.

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the Jewish festival of Purim is probably adopted from the Persian New Year.^[1] It is also a holy day for Ismailis, Alawites,^[2] Alevis, and adherents of the Bahá’í Faith.^[3]

The term Nowruz first appeared in Persian records in the second century AD, but it was also an important day during the time of the Achaemenids (c. 648-330 BC), where kings from different nations under the Persian empire used to bring gifts to the emperor (Shahanshah) of Persia on Nowruz.

best wishes for you

Bill Gates rules

if someone suggests you an advice it’s better to listen if it is right do it if not you lose nothing , but if this someone is Bill Gates it is recommended to listen carefully !
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1:

Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2:

The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3:

You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4:

If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5:

Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6:

If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7:

Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8:

Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9:

Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10:

Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 :

Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.