Picasso's 'Boy With a Pipe' Sets Auction Record

Fox News ^ | 2004/05/06 | Fox

[Truth666]

NEW YORK — Pablo Picasso's 1905 painting "Boy with a Pipe" (search) sold for $104 million Wednesday at Sotheby's, shattering the record for an auctioned painting.
The total includes the auction price of $93 million plus the auction house's commission of about $11 million.
The previous record was set by Vincent van Gogh's 1890 "Portrait of Doctor Gachet," which was sold to a Japanese billionaire for $82.5 million in 1990 at Christie's. That price included the auction house's premium.
A 24-year-old Picasso painted "Boy with a Pipe" soon after settling in Montmartre, France. It depicts a young Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand and wearing a garland of flowers. John Hay and Betsey Whitney bought the painting in 1950 for $30,000.
Sotheby's called the work, which had a presale estimate of $70 million, "one of the most beautiful of the artist's Rose Period paintings and one of the most important early works by Pablo Picasso ever to appear on the market."
The previous highest-selling Picasso piece was "Woman with Crossed Arms," a Blue Period painting done in 1901 and 1902, which sold for more than $55 million in November 2000 at Christie's. It was the fifth-highest auction price paid for a work of art.

[BlueLancer]

Official logo of the Libertarian Party?

[Guvmint_Cheese]

Do any of you remember an old Saturday Night Live skit, where Jon Lovitz is Picasso, and he sneezes into a napkin, signs it, and says "I'm Picasso!!!"? While there are a couple pieces of his I really like, most of it is snot in a napkin :-P

[eddie willers]

I don't see anything particularly meritorious in this painting

Simply that is a Picasso that you can actually look at... unlike those ridiculous "Cubism" monstrosities.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Yes of course. Was searching trying to find Velazquez's "The Piper". It is a stunning painting which outshines any of the rest posted on this thread.

[pbear8]

I'm ready to testify about Michael Jackson now

[Truth666]

So, do you know more than google about the previous Picasso record ?
(I excluded 2004, which returns additionally the results related to this auction)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Woman+with+Crossed+Arms%2C%22+picasso+-2004

[Sir_Humphrey]

Picasso?

Pick your own "asso"!

[Mr. Jeeves]

Rebel against the leftist/modernist tyranny!

Art Renewal Center

[aculeus]

This particular case has additionally something special. Can anyone also see it ?

I know but I don't trust anyone on this thread.

[Truth666]

Thanks for the link

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

This particular case has additionally something special.
Can anyone also see it?



Yeah. It's homo-erotic art.
The kid's got a hard-on in his pants going up his left leg,
and spread legs which are the "focus" of the composition.

[CaptainK]

[Billthedrill]

Yep. Personally I think it's beautiful. But I got outbid, dang it.

FWIW, a lot of Picasso's representative stuff has a presence to it that doesn't translate well to scanning and reproduction. See one of his in a gallery among other paintings and it just seems to jump off the wall at you. The difference (to me) between Picasso and lesser talents that throw paint at a canvas and call it art, is that Picasso really could draw a lamp when he wanted to.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Actually Picasso rarely carried money. He would just doodle on a napkin and hand it to a waitress and say 'here, it's a Picasso'. I know of one incident where he tried to pay for a plane ticket with a doodle.

[BibChr]

Guy's nose and eyes and stuff are all in the right places.

What's up with that?

I say FORGERY!

Dan
(c8

[Reeses]

The winning bidder, a hard life public servant:

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Yeah, you're right. I like the ones that have three eyes and the nose coming out the side of the head where an ear should be.

[ThanhPhero]

Pas une fille, mais qu'est ce c'est que cela?

[Doctor Stochastic]

Une peinture. "Ceci n'est une pipe" is the title of a famous painting.

[Truth666]

no doubt this "masterpiece" will be "processed" the same way