Musée National Picasso-Paris

This guide to the Musée National Picasso-Paris starts with Pierre Aubert, who built this grand mansion in 1656 on fortune he made collecting France's hated salt tax, and lost it to the courts within seven years. It jumps three centuries to 1973, when Pablo Picasso's death left his heirs an enormous inheritance tax bill, and follows the unusual French law that let them settle a debt with art instead of cash. Notice which pieces from his own collection he chose to keep for himself as you move room to room.