Price Spotter

Pablo Picasso, Femme au chapeau, 1971

"New York’s spring art auctions kick off this week with the impressionist and modern-art sales at Sotheby’s May 5 and 6 and at Christie’s May 6 and 7. The auction houses had disastrous sales last fall—when Sotheby’s and Christie’s lost millions of dollars on art that went unsold or sold for less than they had guaranteed consignees. They stressed that estimates have been lowered—at times back to 2004 prices—to encourage buyers and voiced confidence in the outcome, based on the success of these strategies in recent London sales."

So how much do you think this bad girl will go for? Send in your guesses. Christie's estimates it to sell for between $8 and 12 million. It's a damn good painting. I'm guessing it will sell for $13 million. The reader with the closest guess will win an actual jpeg of the above Picasso painting! Game on!