man: amedeo modigliani's nu couché, or reclining nude, was a top prize that went for top dollar.ad recently that somebody bought a $175 million work of art and he charged that entire work of art to the american express card. do you have to clear that in advance? i can't acknowledge whether that took place or not, from a privacy standpoint. what i will say is-- suppose i wanted to buy a $175 million work of art-- david, if you want to buy that, i am sure you'll be approved. and if you would like to talk after this interview about any other purchases... okay. we'll have that conversation. okay. so have you ever used your american express card and had it turned down? that has never happened to me. really? when i took over the card business in e early '90s, we did have a policy for top management, that they had an automatic override. and i thought that was absurd. because i wanted our top executives to have the experience that every customer had. and so we did have some executives that were declined for a purchase. so let's suppose sometimes you go to buy something at a place and it