A leading US art critic has blasted a Fox news station for being "sexually sick" after the network blurred out the breasts on Pablo Picasso's The Women of Algiers (Version O) in a report about the masterpiece selling for a record-breaking $US179million ($227million) in New York on Monday.

The New York magazine senior art critic Jerry Saltz took to Twitter to voice his disapproval, tweeting: "How sexually sick are conservatives & Fox News? They blurred parts of the Picasso painting #SickMinds."

Blurred lines: The Fox News treatment of Picasso's The Women of Algiers.

His consternation was echoed across various other Twitter users, who labelled the move "bizarre" and "pathetic", with one user including the hashtag #freethenipple, referencing the recent campaign against censorship of the female form.