How much is a Picasso worth?

Pablo Picasso's Boy with a Pipe (the link is broadband with audio and video; here is a lower tech image) is on the auction block at Sotheby's, this Wednesday evening. Some analysts expect the painting to go for at least $100 million, an all-time record. The Whitney family bought that same picture in 1950 for $30,000.

Are you thinking of bidding? Well, what else could you buy with $100 million?

One new opera house in downtown Toronto

15,625 pounds (or 7,087 kilograms) of gold

One six-album recording contract with Whitney Houston

Four years of ball-playing by New York Yankees star third baseman Alex Rodriguez

One Adam Sandler movie, including production and marketing costs

1.5 million hepatitis-B vaccines for children in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia

One day of Iraqi occupation by U.S. forces

Here is the full story. By the way, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is thinking of selling $27 million worth of its Picasso holdings, perhaps to buy more Damien Hirst.