Top 10 Most Expensive Auction Items

Item: Pablo Picasso's Boy with a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)
Winning Bid: $104.1 million
Sold: 2004

The Vered Gallery's auction of Andy Warhol's 1984 Michael Jackson portrait (originally commissioned by TIME) closes on Aug. 18, when the New York City gallery will announce the winning bid. Although the painting is not expected to break any records — the recession-weary market has significantly depressed art values — the opening bid of $800,000 was set before the pop star's death, which has undoubtedly raised the price. Yet even with all the postmortem interest in Michael Jackson, the painting has a long way to go before it breaks the record for the priciest painting. That honor goes to Pablo Picasso.

An anonymous buyer snagged Boy with a Pipe (The Young Apprentice), a 1905 painting from Picasso's so-called Rose Period, at a 2004 Sotheby's auction, ending Vincent van Gogh's 14-year run as the world's most valuable artist. (A van Gogh had previously held the title with a 1990 price tag of $82.5 million.) The auction had been highly anticipated and over 1,000 people packed the auction room to watch the extravagance unfold. The only question now is: Where should you hang it?

Read "Picasso: The Fine Art of Theft."