Japan Today - Japanese billionaire buys Picasso painting for $104 mil

Japan Today - Japanese billionaire buys Picasso painting for $104 mil - : "Friday, May 7, 2004 at 02:00 JST
NEW YORK � Pablo Picasso's early masterpiece, -Garcon a la pipe- (Boy with a Pipe) fetched more the $104 million at the Sotheby's art auction in New York on Wednesday night. The buyer was a Japanese who wished to remain anonymous, said Sothebys.
The painting, which was painted by Picasso in 1905 when he was 24, became the most expensive painting to date and outstripped Van Gogh's -Portrait of Dr Gachet,- which was bought for a record $82.5 million in 1990. (Kyodo News)"