New York — A rare Picasso canvas sold at Sotheby's New York Wednesday night for more than $104-million (U.S.), setting a record for a work of art bought at auction by eclipsing the previous record, for a van Gogh painting, by more than $20-million. Garçon à la Pipe, which Picasso painted in 1905 at age 24 shortly after he moved to Paris, was one of the few large masterpieces from his Rose period, and the only one left in private hands. The pre-sale estimate by Sotheby's experts was in the $70-million range and small talk in the art world suggested it could fetch a record, but few thought the $100-million-plus figure was realistic. The previous record for a Picasso was $55-million, set in November of 2000.Applause broke out in the sales-room after bidder Warren Weitman, the Sotheby's chairman in North America, triumphed on behalf of an anonymous buyer for $93-million. The buyer will have to pay $104,168,000 (about $143-million Canadian) including the Sotheby's commission. David Norman, a Sotheby's vice-president, suggested the record was attributable to more than just the hot art market. "The work itself is haunting and poetic. It is like a whisper that invades you, fills your spirit," he said after the auction. The Picasso was among 34 lots sold last night that belonged to the Greentree Foundation, a New York charitable institute funded by the collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney and dedicated to the furtherance of peace, human rights and international co-operation. Mr. Whitney died in 1982 and Mrs. Whitney in 1998.

Mr. Whitney, a former U.S. ambassador to Britain and the publisher of The New York Herald Tribune, bought the Picasso with his wife in 1950 for $30,000.The oil-on-canvas work, which measures 99.7 by 81.3 cm, depicts a young boy dressed in Picasso's blue workman's overalls against a rose background and two bouquets of pastel flowers. Because of the blue overalls and the fact that Garçon à la Pipe was executed toward the beginning of Picasso's Rose period, it is suggested that the painting is a bridge from his moodier Blue period. Sotheby's officials were determined to set a record. The bidding began at $55-million and took almost five minutes as bids increased in $1-million increments, the auctioneer pausing frequently to allow representatives in the salesroom to confer with their phone bidders. Sotheby's officials refused to entertain questions about the identity of the successful buyer, though they noted there were seven serious bidders during the auction and that, during the course of the evening, bidders came from across the world including England, Singapore, France, Switzerland and Taiwan. The entire sale by the Greentree Foundation took in more than $189-million.Records were set for the work of four other artists. William Blake's The Good and Evil Angels Struggling for Possession of a Child, which the Sotheby's auctioneer joked was a depiction of "two bidders trying to get the Picasso," sold for $3.92-million, outpacing the previous record of $2.5-million.Raoul Dufy's Fête à Sainte-Adresse sold for $3.14-million, almost $500,000 above his previous record. Jean-Frederic Bazille's Pots de Fleurs went for $5.32-million, more than three times a previous record for the French painter. Sir Alfred J. Munnings's The Red Prince Mare sold for upward of $7.7-million, more than $3-million above his previous record. The sale is the second evening in New York's spring Impressionist and Modern Art sales rolling out during the next two weeks, which will include more pieces from the Whitney collection as well as Monets and Braques owned by Hollywood producer Ray Stark, who died in January, and a painting from the collection of actress Elizabeth Taylor.-Simone Houpt