Paul Gauguin, From Wealth Manager to Destitute Artist

At age 23, Paul Gauguin started a successful career as a Parisian stockbroker. He fell in with the arty set, including Pissarro and Degas.

If Gauguin didn't invent the midlife crisis, surely he perfected it. In his late 30's he abandoned his job, his family and middle-class life to become an artist. Economically, it was downhill all the way. Only after Gauguin's death in 1903, sick and destitute in Tahiti, did his paintings become prized.

Fast forward to 2015. One of Gauguin's works, painted during his first stay in Tahiti, just changed hands at a price higher than any other painting is known to have fetched: nearly $300 million!

What do you suppose the wealth manager turned artist would have made of that news?

This Gauguin sold for a record price of almost $300 million.