Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a pipe) is a painting by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1905, during the 24 year old artist's Rose Period , soon after settling in Montmartre, France. The oil on canvas painting, measuring 100 x 81.3 cm (slightly over 39 x 32 inches), depicts a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand. On May 4, 2004, it fetched $104.1 million USD at an auction in Sotheby's in New York, after having been given a pre-sale estimate of $70 million by the auction house.

Many art critics have stated that the painting's high sale price has much more to do with the artist's name than with the merit or historical import of the painting. The Washington Post's article [1] on the sale contained the following characterisation of the reaction:

Picasso expert Pepe Karmel, reached in New York the morning after the sale, was waxing wroth about the whole affair. "I'm stunned," he said, "that a pleasant, minor painting could command a price appropriate to a real masterwork by Picasso. This just shows how much the marketplace is divorced from the true values of art."

The article goes on to argue that the picture, while aesthetically pleasing, is not of the Cubist style that Picasso largely invented and to which he owes his exalted place in the art world. Most of the world's most famous paintings are now owned by museums, and once acquired are almost always kept indefinitely. They are therefore literally priceless, but if such works (for instance, the iconic Mona Lisa) were put on the open market, it is safe to assume that they would reach far higher values.

External links

• Scotsman.com News - Picasso masterpiece makes record $104.1 million at auction
• On-Line Picasso Project
• Painting