(Image from arunadsouza) Hide the boobies!
In recent art news, Pablo Picasso’s The Women of Algiers (Version O) recently sold at auction for $179 million (£114 million) at Christie’s New York. A Fox news station (NOT sensationalist media outlet Fox News like some are saying, here’s their actual segment) obviously reported on the crazy amounts of money people are spending on art, unfortunately they decided that abstract cubist nipples were the worst thing in the entire world and needed to be censored.
Here’s what the painting actually looks like:
It’s pretty stupid to censor boobs. Our buddy, Jerry Saltz had this to say:
Why can’t we all act like grown ups? Painted boobs are literally not the worst thing in the world. The news shows other horrible stuff like decapitations and dead bodies littering the streets and those things don’t get censored! Get a grip guys. /end rant
Anyway, The Women of Algiers (Version O) now holds the title for most expensive painting ever sold at auction taking the title from Three Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon, which sold for $142.4 million late 2013.
There are other paintings that have sold for more, but through private buyers.
A short list includes
Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) by Paul Gauguin that sold for approximately $300 million in early 2014.
The Card Players by Paul Cézanne went for $274 million in early 2011.
And just to reiterate: Fox News the 24-hour “news” station was not the one to censor the painting. It was a local NY news station that’s on the Fox Channel.
UPDATE: Looks like Fox 5 has learned their lesson:
By: Lauren
Sr. Editor