Who Can Afford This

10.  Most Expensive Painting

Everyone knows the art is expensive… but how much? World has seen some great painters their great paintings and great worth of such paintings. The admirers of painting masterpieces are many who can spend hefty sum to acquire them. The painting that won on the list of most expensive paintings sold in auction ever is Pablo Picasso’s ’Boy with the pipe’ or ‘Garcon a la pipe’. Painted in 1905 by Pablo Picasso, Garcon a la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe) became the most expensive painting ever sold at auction when it was sold in Sotheby’s in New York in May 2004 for a price of just over $104 million. One thousand people showed up to the auction on that day to whiteness someone spend a king’s ransom on the piece. The anonymous buyer made no comment as to where he planned on hanging the piece.

9. Most Expensive Piece of Clothing

At Kennedy’s birthday celebration on May 19^th 1962, the gorgeous actress sang him a seductive sounding birthday song wearing a dress so tight and curve-hugging that rumor has it she wore nothing underneath. Manhattan collectible company Gotta Have It purchased this dress at auction $1,267,500 in 1999. When asked by reporters why he would spend a fortune on a piece of fabric that originally cost $12,000, company president Robert Schargen proclaimed that he would have paid twice that: “We stole it” he boasted.

8. Most Expensive Manuscript

The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as Codex Hammer) is a collection of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The codex is named after Thomas Coke, later created Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1717. Of Leonardo’s 30 scientific journals, the Codex may be the most famous of all.The Codex provides a rare insight into the inquiring mind of the definitive Renasissance artist, scientist and thinker as well as an exceptional illustration of the link between art and science and the creativity of the scientific process. As the ultimate Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci meticulously recorded his thoughts, musings and sketches in journals throughout his life. Three years after Bill Gates bought the historic diary, for  $30,802,500 in 1994, he released a digitally scanned version for all the world to enjoy.

7. Most Expensive Musical Instrument

The violin is probably the most popular bowed and stringed musical instrument. The instrument comes from Italy during the 16th century and the oldest surviving violin dates to 1564. Even if you don’t play the violin, you’ve probably heard of Antonio Stradivari, the famous Italian craftsman of stringed instruments (or luthier, as such a person is known). But it was Bartolomeo Giuseppe Antonio Guarnieri, the grandson of one of Stradivari’s apprentices, whose instrument broke the world record for the highest-priced auction item. The violin in question, a 250-year-old piece once owned by Tsar Alexander II’s court violinist, was sold to Viktorov at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for nearly $4 million USD. Viktorov only played it a little before purchasing it. After that, he refused to play it until Israeli virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman had performed with it. The violin had not been played for 70 years at the time of the sale, until the buyer hired Israeli maestro Pinchas Zukerman to play it for him at a private concert. To hear the first few notes play off such a classic instrument must have made the investment worth every penny.

6.Most Expensive Lock of Hair

Apart from his soulful voice and swinging hips, Elvis Presley was known for his hair. The record holder in this category is the King himself. Sold by Homer Gilleland, his longtime personal barber, the jet-black cuttings of Elvis Presley brought in a record $115,120 at an online auction in 2002 — or more than $140,000 if the locks were purchased today. Some other hair locks sold for a great amount of money are – hair from John Lennon ($48,000), John F. Kennedy ($3,000) and Beethoven ($7,300)…

5.  Most Expensive Antiquity

The sculpture is over 2,000 years old and hails back to the Roman empire. In the 1920′s, a team of construction workers stumbled upon it while digging in Rome, and they must be kicking themselves for not holding onto it now. On June 7, 2007, a Roman era bronze sculpture of “Artemis and the Stag” was sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York state by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery for $25.5 million. ”She deserved it!” – said Richard M. Keresey, Worldwide Director of Sotheby’s Antiquities

4.  Most Expensive Car

There are only 21 other cars like it, but none of them are quite so expensive.The 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa is unarguably one of the most beautiful and successfully designed race cars ever. It was sold for $12.15 million at an auction and became the most expensive car ever sold in the world. It was declared that the price of the car includes a 10 percent buyer’s premium on top. 22 Scaglietti-designed Testa Rossas’s fenders were built by Ferrari Company between 1957 and 1958. It has  a 300 horsepower V12. Testa Rossas won 10 of the 19 races they entered between 1958 and 1961.

3. Most Expensive Furniture

You won’t find this in Ikea…or anywhere else…When the 18th century Florentine ebony chest inlaid with amethyst quartz, agate, lapis lazuli and other stones sold for $36 million at a 2004 Christie’s auction, it broke its own record as the most expensive piece of furniture sold at auction. The chest received its name because it resided in Badminton England for more than two centuries. A true piece of art, the item has been owned by Barbara Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson corporation and Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein.

2. Most Expensive Diamond

A rare blue diamond handed down through generations of German royalty sold for a record-breaking $24.3 million at auction Wednesday in London. The 35.56-carat blue diamond dates back to the 17th century, when King Philip IV of Spain selected the jewel to be part of his daughter’s dowry. The diamond passed among Austrian and Bavarian royalty for centuries, but after World War I Bavaria became a republic and the jewel was repossessed by the state. If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, the Wittelsbach would make one heck of a BFF.

1. Most Expensive Sports Memorabilia

Mark McGwire 70th Home Run Ball (1998) – $3,005,000. It only takes two to make an auction, which is why the bid for this ball went through the roof to what some say was a grossly inflated price, even without the steroid allegations that have come to dog McGwire. The winning bid, from comic book maker Todd MacFarlane, was reportedly well above all other offers. The ball is now estimated to be worth about a third of what MacFarlane paid for it.