Pablo Picasso

This passage is about the famous painter, Pablo Picasso.

Lexile Level: 730L

Categories: People & Places Art & Music

Pablo Picasso was a painter and a sculptor. He lived from 1881 to 1973. Picasso became famous for painting in a new style called cubism. He painted people by using geometric shapes such as cones, spheres, and cubes. Today, Picasso's artwork is very valuable. A man named Steve Wynn owns a painting by Picasso. He decided he wanted to sell it. A friend of his agreed to buy it. The price was $139 million dollars. It would be the highest price ever paid for a piece of art. Just before the money and art changed hands, Wynn invited some friends to his office to look at the painting. While Wynn was talking, he backed up and accidentally punched a hole in the painting with his elbow. He could no longer sell the Picasso. One person who was there called it the "forty-million-dollar elbow," because that was how much value the painting probably lost.