According to William Randolph Hearst's mother, whenever the mogul got upset he went shopping. On one occasion, he bought, sight unseen, a 10th century Spanish cloister, in Segovia, for $40,000. The purchase was the easy part:

In order to move it, the cloister was dismantled, stone by stone; 21 miles of railway were then laid down to join up with the nearest existing line; and a sawmill was built to cut wood for the 10,700 crates in which the stones were packed.