November 18, 2013updated 11 Jan 2016 1:20pm

Criminal art world, crack addict bank chairman and rich man’s artful middle finger

We bring you the best of the weekend’s papers, including the drug-money fuelled art enterprise, the former Co-op bank chairman using meth and crack cocaine and a rich man erects a giant middle finger next door to his ex-wife

1. Wolff: Is art a criminal enterprise? (USA Today)

Drug dealers laundering money are helping drive art prices to stratospheric levels

2. Former chairman of the Co-op bank ‘uses crystal meth and crack cocaine’ (Telegraph)

Reverend Paul Flowers, who stood down after the near collapse of the Co-operative Bank, has allegedly been filmed counting out cash to buy drugs

Pictured above: Reverend Paul Flowers, former Co-op Bank chairman

3. Britain’s top earners are now paying almost 30 per cent of all income tax while their income equates to just 10 per cent of the national salary (Mail)

Huge increase since 1979 revealed in research for the Sunday Times Super-rich earners paid 11 per cent of tax 34 years ago – now they pay 29.8 Chancellor says ‘broadest shoulders must take the biggest burden’

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4. Rich Man Buys House Next to Ex-Wife, Erects Giant Middle Finger Outside (Gawker.com)

A Michigan man has reportedly gone to Internet-ready lengths in order to troll his ex-wife with a daily reminder of his feelings towards her.

Pictured above: Flood-lit middle finger sculpture

5. So long, New York, my suffocating, selfish mistress, I’m going home (Sunday Times, £)

It’s hard to shock New Yorkers but I have finally managed it. After arriving here a little over a year ago, I’m leaving. When I tell New Yorkers this they look at me with amazement. “You’re kidding!” they say. “Are you serious?”