Following up on a report in yesterday's Times about the sale by David Geffen of Jackson Pollock's "No. 5, 1948," to a mysterious Mexican, the Guardian says, hey, wait a second:

The $140m quoted as the price obtained by Sotheby's for Pollock's "Number 5, 1948" would make it the highest figure known to have ever been paid for a painting. It would break the record believed to have been set in June when Gustav Klimt's gold-flecked portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer from 1907 was bought by the cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder for a reputed $135m. The prices all have to be heavily qualified because sales of fine art masters between private owners are among the most tightly controlled and secretive deals around. Even the $135m fetched by the Klimt has yet to be officially confirmed.

Whatever the number, the sale, along with the recent unloading s of a Jasper Johns and a Willem de Kooning, has fueled speculation that Geffen is trying to raise cash for a bid on the troubled L.A. Times (insert your own "drips on paper" joke here). In any event, David Martinez, the purchaser, may have just spent almost three times what he paid for his Time Warner Center apartment on the Pollock. Here's hoping his eyes are okay.

Mexican splashes out record $140m for Jackson Pollock's drops of genius [Guardian]
A Pollock Is Sold, Possibly for a Record Price [NYT]

Yes, it was intentional.