Several years ago when I was looking for a good avatar to use on poker forums I fell in love with two famous Paul Cezanne paintings that featured card players.




They were painted as part of a five painting series by Cezanne between 1890 and 1895 around his family estate in Provence. While the other four works are in museum collections, my favorite "The Card Players," (top pictured) I learned today, was part of the collection of the late Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos. Over the weekend, the Qatari royal family paid over $250 million at auction to purchase the work. Yes, $250 million for a 120 year old painting of some card players.

The previous record was held from the 2006 auction sale of Jackson Pollock's 1948 No. 5 painting to Mexican financier David Martinez for $140 million. With all the oil money in the Gulf over the last decade, many modern and contemporary master's works have been ending up in locations like the Qatar National Museum. This staggering purchase indicates that many other famous paintings are on their wish list and should bode well for the valuation of the many higher profile artworks out there. I'm figuring if they are willing to pay that kind of money for the artwork, they might want to protect its value. So my avatar may go into retirement soon...