Rich people love their art, especially the rare and historic ones, like an original van Gogh, for example.

There are many reasons for wanting these rare items. It could be a way of showing how rich one is and how one has something exclusive.

Or, it could be the genuine appreciation of beauty, owning a part of history, or honoring the genius of the artist.

Whatever the case, rich people pay obscene amounts of money for original pieces of art. The following is a list of 5 paintings that have sold for over $100 million (adjusted for inflation in 2011 US dollars).

Many of these transactions happened within the last 20 years, which serves as evidence of the ever-growing wealth of the ultra-rich.

Woman III, Willem de Kooning 146 million
Kooning was a leading artist in the abstract expressionism movement. The Woman III was a painting he created in the 1950s.It was moved to Iran before the Iranian Revolution of 1979. After that, it was no longer welcome there. In 1994, it was sent to the Western world. In 2006, it was sold to Steve A. Cohen, one of the most aggressive hedge fund managers on Wall Street. Historic
Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent van Gogh 139 million
This is one of van Gogh’s most coveted painting. The subject and the title of the painting was Dr. Paul Gachet, the French physician who treated the famed artist in the former’s last months of living.The person who bought the painting was Ryoei Saito of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing. Saito probably paid the huge sum because of his genuine love for the piece of art work; he once said he wanted to cremate the painting and bury it with him upon his death.Saito had one copy of Dr. Gachet. A second one is at the Musée d'Orsay at Paris. Historic
Bal du moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir 132 million
Ryoei Saito sure likes old paintings. In addition to buying Dr. Gachet, he also bought Bal du moulin de la Galette, one of the most recognizable paintings from the 19th century.As with the van Gogh painting, Saito at one point said he would cremate the painting and bury it with him upon death. Historic
Garon la pipe, Pablo Picasso 121 million
This piece of work, which means “boy with a pipe,” shows exactly that. It’s not one of Picasso’s most famous works, but someone (the buyer was anonymous, but some say it was Guido Barilla) was willing to drop over $100 million on it.This piece of work was produced in 1905 when Picasso was just 24 years old. Historic
Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur, Pablo Picasso 105 million
This is another Picasso, but it was painted in 1932, when the artist was in his 50s. It featured his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, a French model. In just a few years after this painting, Picasso moved on to his next mistress.The painting endures, though, and fetched about $104 million in 2010. The ultra-rich, apparently, are still rich after the global financial crisis of 2007. Historic