ART

Pablo Picasso’s revolutionary masterpiece, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” returns to the city where it was painted for a three-month showing at the Picasso Museum in Paris on Wednesday. The Cubist work that critics say changed the face of modern art is on loan from the Museum of Modern Art in New York until April 18. The 6-by-9-foot canvas, painted shortly after the turn of the century but not unveiled until 30 years after, depicts five female nudes in pastel tones with facial features askew. Officials of the New York museum have said high transportation and insurance costs and the risk of damage to the painting likely will prohibit them from lending it again.