A masterpiece by American painter Jackson Pollock is the world's most expensive painting.

According to a report in The New York Times, Mexican financier David Martinez paid a staggering $140m for the painting, titled No. 5, 1948, in a private sale in November 2006.

The sale was reportedly brokered by Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer, however, law firm Shearman & Sterling issued a press release on behalf of Mr Martinez, stating that its client does not own the painting or any rights to acquire it.

US media mogul David Geffen, 64, was the previous owner of the drip-and-pour painting.

It is speculated that Mr Geffen sold the painting, along with two others, to raise enough funds to bid for the Los Angeles Times.

Mr Martinez has reportedly been amassing an art collection, buying multiple modern artworks in recent years.

Pollock was born in Wyoming in 1912, and died in a car crash in 1956 at the age of just 44.

The influential painter, who battled both alcoholism and depression, was a major force in the abstract expressionist movement.

Willem de Kooning's Woman III is the world's second most expensive painting.

Steven Cohen, a self-made billionaire hedge fund investor, purchased the painting from Mr Geffen for $137.5m in a private sale in November 2006.

Woman III is one of a series of six paintings by de Kooning done between 1951 and 1953 in which the central theme was a woman.

A stunning portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt comes in at number three.

The 1907 work, which was once looted by the Nazis, was bought by cosmetics magnate Ronald S Lauder for about $135m in July 2006.

Mr Lauder, who is the founder of New York museum Neue Galerie, said Christie's had helped him negotiate the purchase.

The painting - a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer - was sold by Bloch-Bauer's 90-year-old niece and heir, Maria Altmann.

Klimt was born in Baumgarten in 1862, and died in Vienna in 1918 at the age of 56. He was an honorary member of the Universities of Munich and Vienna.

Pablo Picasso's Boy with a Pipe, which was sold for $104.1m in May 2004, holds the world record for a painting sold at auction.

The work was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder at Sotheby's in New York City. It had been expected to fetch just $70m.

Many art critics have stated that the painting's high sale price has much more to do with the artist's name than with the merit or historical importance of the painting.

Boy with a Pipe, painted in 1905, depicts a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand.

Dora Maar au Chat, another Picasso masterpiece, is the world’s fifth most expensive painting.

The Gidwitz family sold the 1941 painting to an anonymous Russian bidder at Sotheby's in New York for just over $95m in May 2006 - making it the second-highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.

It depicts Dora Maar, the painter's Croatian mistress, seated on a chair with a small cat perched on her shoulders.

Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer II is sixth on the list of expensive paintings. The 1912 portrait sold for $87.9m in 2006.

Seventh place goes to Vincent van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet, which was snapped up by Ryoei Saito for a cool $82.5m back in 1990.

False Start by Jasper Johns, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre and Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens complete the top 10.

Other paintings in the top 20 include van Gogh’s A Wheatfield with Cypresses and Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) by American artist Andy Warhol.

Please note that sale prices have not been adjusted for inflation.

The article The world's most expensive paintings originally appeared on 999 Today