The World's Most Expensive Paintings

Sotheby's employees pose with Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's 1895 pastel-on-board version of "The Scream," which went up for auction in London on May 2.

The painting broke auction records by selling for almost $120 million.

The most expensive painting ever sold to date is Paul Cezanne's "The Card Players" (1890-92), which was sold by a private owner to Qatar for $250 million last year. 

Austrian Gustav Klimt is another artist whose work sells for huge amounts of money. His 1907 painting "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" sold for $135 million in 2006.

Another portrait of the same woman "Adele Blocher-Bauer II" was also sold in 2006 for nearly $90 million.

Pablo Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" (1932) held the previous auction record. It was sold at Christie's in New York for more than $106 million in 2010. 

Not surprisingly for such a high-profile artist, many of Pablo Picasso's works appear on lists of most expensive paintings. His "Dora Maar au chat" fetched more than $95 million at Sotheby's in 2006.

Picasso's early work "Garcon a la Pipe" (1905) sold for $104 million in 2004. (The painting itself cost $93 million, but the auctioneer, Sotheby's, was also paid a commission of $11 million.)

Andy Warhol's "Eight Elvises" (1963) was reportedly sold to a private buyer for $100 million in 2009.

Jackson Pollock's abstract painting "No.5" (1948) is said to be the second-most expensive painting ever sold. It reportedly exchanged hands in 2006 for $140 million. 

Dutch painter Willem de Kooning's "Woman III" (1963) is thought to be the third-most expensive painting ever sold. It was reportedly bought by American hedge fund manager Steve A. Cohen for more than $137 million in 2006.

London's National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh raised $72 million earlier this year to acquire Titian's "Diana and Callisto