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THE BLURRING OUT of breasts in a record breaking Pablo Picasso painting on a TV news station has been blasted by a leading US art critic.

The painting, Women of Algiers, went for $160 million. The final price, including the premium of auction house Christie’s, was $179.3 million (€160m).

It sold in record time of 11 minutes.

However, the network perhaps thought it best to shield their viewers from some aspects of the artwork.

A screengrab of the live report on Fox5NY – a local New York FOX affiliate – tweeted by the art critic Jerry Saltz shows the nipples of three female figures are blurred out.

Saltz, who writes for New York Magazine, was not impressed:

Others took to Twitter using #freethenipple:

Think you can handle it?

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We think you can:

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WATCH: 11 minutes of madness: Sale of Picasso painting sets world record>

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