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Happy birthday Picasso

Stacey Vanek Smith Oct 27, 2006
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Happy birthday Picasso

Stacey Vanek Smith Oct 27, 2006
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TEXT OF STORY

MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: Time for a look back at business history. When we open the vault, we find artist Pablo Picasso whose birthday is this week. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports.


STACEY VANEK-SMITH: Pablo Picasso was born in Spain this week back in 1881.

As a young man, he moved Paris where he quickly established himself as an important artist.

He also embraced the media. That helped him became an international celebrity and the richest artist in the world with dealers competing to sell his worka€¦as Illustrated in the film, Surviving Picasso.

[ Now in New York, I can sell everything that you give me in five minutes just like that.
How much?
For more than any painter alive today!
More than Matisse? ]

Picasso was notoriously cheap, but when he died at age 91 his estate was worth more than a billion in today’s dollars.

And he’s still raking it in. Boy with a Pipe holds the title of the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. The price tag? $104 million.

I’m Stacey Vanek-Smith.

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