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This day's painting was special, however. For one, the man commissioning the painting never revealed his real name. And rather than pay money directly, he suggested a trade: I'm going to write a Wikipedia article about you, he said, and you penis-paint the face of Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of the largest and most influential encyclopedia in the world. The painting would then be added to the article.

"I was surprised that someone would do an article on me," Pricasso told me. "I thought what the hell—I'd do it."

It took him 30 minutes.

Days later, a photograph of the painting, as well as an explicit making-of video, was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a media repository run by the Wikimedia Foundation, which also oversees Wikipedia. The entry launched a storm of controversy, precipitated by no less than Wales himself, who publicly declared the video a form of sexual harassment.

More troubling for the community: The Wikimedian who uploaded the video, Russavia, was an influential, eight-year veteran of the Foundation, who'd had several public clashes with Wales in recent months.

Was Russavia the same man who commissioned the painting, Wikipedians wondered? Was he seeking revenge on Wales? And if the founder of Wikipedia himself is powerless to stop sexual harassment on Wikimedia Commons, what hope do the rest of us have?

Internet is full of attention whores who will almost do anything to have a piece of article somewhere. Even if they're going to be slandered in it. It must be a pathological thing.