If I remember right the last record setting art purchase turned out to be a sly tax dodge. Some Sotheby's leadership have got into serious legal trouble lately. Whatever. It's not about art.

JinK, I still can't get over your assertion that Picasso is a formula artist, and wish you explain what that formula is, exactly. There are plenty of criticisms one can reasonably aim at Picasso, but that one takes my breath away for sheer wrongness. When asked what he thought of his many imitators Picasso said "but they can't do the bad ones." And I think so--the real stinkers in that mountain of stuff are part of his 'star quality' and why he's more exciting than more stolid, safe, and dependable artists.