Picasso sells for $104m shattering art record

PICASSO’S 1905 painting Boy with a Pipe has been sold to an unknown buyer for a record-shattering $104 million at Sotheby’s of New York.

It destroyed the previous record 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. The total includes the auction price of $93 million plus the auction house's commission of about $11 million.

"This is the finest work in private hands that was going to be available for sale," said David Norman, Sotheby's senior vice-president.