1 Kings 4:21, 29â34. The Israelites came to King Solomon when they needed help. One day two women came to him with a baby boy. The women said they lived in the same house. They each had a baby, but one of the babies died. Now both women wanted the baby that was alive. Each mother said he was her baby. They wanted King Solomon to tell them who could keep the baby.
The earliest sale on the list below (Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh) is from March 1987; with a price of Â£24.75 million (Â£62.8 million in current value) it tripled the previous record and introduced a new era in top art sales.
Vincent van Gogh didn't start painting until he was 27 or 28, but his oeuvre included nearly 900 works -- an average of about 2 per week -- before he died at 37. Before he pursued painting, van Gogh attempted to be a lay minister, teacher and art dealer, among other professions.