Atelier de Cannes, by Pablo Picasso? Crayon on paper, 1958.

Looks like I finally came through for you pessimists! What can I say? I get busy, I get lazy... and I was actually kind of overwhelmed about everything that could be said about the Acropolis. I mean, it's the freaking Acropolis. I will get to it... eventually... but first, a little something in honor of April Fool's Day.

Back in mid-2005, the above drawing was put up for sale on Costco.com, for the low low price of $129,999.99. (Because people out there shopping for a Picasso sure wouldn't want to pay the full $130,000.) At the time I actually went to the Costco website and checked it out, and was surprised to see that they had some other quality art pieces for sale as well, including a Chagall and a few Modiglianis.

So naturally everybody and their mother started talking about this Picasso drawing, and being the art historian I am, everyone came to me complaining that their 5-year-old could draw something better than this. I hear this about a lot of good art, and usually it pisses me off, but in this case I actually agreed. Little did I know that this was actually a sign that I am, in fact, a genius.

So Costco sold this drawing, as well as a second Picasso, and was about to put a third up for sale when someone with authority finally spoke up and said, hey, this doesn't just look like crap, it is crap. And Picasso didn't make crap. Picasso's daughter Maya, the world's Picasso authority, came out a week or two ago and stated that all of the drawings, and their authentication papers, were fakes.

I so called it.

Well, I didn't call it a forgery, but I did call it a piece of crap, and I was right.

Go me.