Record tipped for Picasso work
From CNN Senior Producer Phil Hirschkorn
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A painting by Pablo Picasso of an adolescent boy holding a pipe could bring a record price for the artist's work at auction Wednesday evening in New York.
Picasso's "Boy With A Pipe" ("Garçon a la Pipe") will be sold by Sotheby's and is expected to garner around $70 million when the hammer falls. The final price will reflect commissions for the auctioneer.
The painting is one of 34 artworks being sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney to raise money for the Greentree Foundation, which Betsey Cushing Whitney founded after her husband's death in 1982 to promote international peace and diplomacy.
More than $140 million is expected to be raised for all of the pieces.
The Picasso, completed in 1905, is considered one of the Spanish artist's best works still in private hands.
"It is in a pristine condition, and it is from a very sought-after period that almost never appears at auction. The blue and rose period masterpieces are almost entirely in museums," said David Norman, co-chairman of Sotheby's Impressionist Art Department.
Picasso's "rose period," distinguished by his use of that color between 1904-06, yielded works with "a more poetic mood, a softer mood, a more romantic mood," Norman said.
The 100cm x 80 cm (39 x 32 inch) oil painting shows a boy, in Paris, where Picasso lived, wearing blue overalls, holding a pipe in his left hand, and wearing a crown of roses amidst a rosy background.
The most expensive Picasso to date sold for $55 million in 2000.
Another noteworthy painting in the Whitney sale is Eduard Manet's "Racing Scene" ("Courses au Bois de Boulogne"), completed in 1871, which shows a spectator-filled day at the horse races in a park in Paris.
The Impressionists, like Manet, "weren't into historical or religious scenes or portraits of the aristocracy," Norman said. "They wanted to show their contemporary life as it was lived."
The work of Manet, who died at 52, is scarcer than that of prolific Picasso, who lived to 92.
"Unlike Picasso, who appears at sale frequently, Manets rarely if ever come to market," Norman said.
Sotheby's estimates the Manet to sell at $20 million to 30 million, which could set a record for that artist's work.
Whitney, born into one of America's wealthiest families, was a venture capitalist, publisher, Broadway show and Hollywood film producer, and philanthropist.
He served as U.S. Ambassador to England from 1956-61 and as a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Mrs. Whitney died in 1998.
