Pablo Picasso's "dream" painting has turned into a $139 million nightmare for Steve Wynn.
In an accident witnessed by a group that included Barbara Walters and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi, Wynn accidentally poked a hole in Picasso's 74-year-old painting, "Le Reve," French for "The Dream."
A day earlier, Wynn had finalized a record $139 million deal for the painting of Picasso's mistress, Wynn told The New Yorker magazine
The accident occurred as a gesturing Wynn, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that affects peripheral vision, struck the painting with his right elbow, leaving a hole the size of a silver dollar in the left forearm of Marie-Theresa Walter, Picasso's 21-year-old mistress.
"Oh shit, look what I've done," Wynn said, according to Ephron, who gave her account in a blog published on Monday.
Wynn paid $48.4 million for the Picasso in 1997 and had agreed to sell it to art collector Steven Cohen. The $139 million would have been $4 million higher than the previous high for a work of art, according to The New Yorker.
Cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder paid $135 million in July for Gustav Klimt's 1907 portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I."
Wynn plans to restore "Le Reve" and keep it.
Two words: Duct tape
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Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:53 pm Posts: 8066 Location: Las Vegas via Rockford (Roscoe), IL Gender: Female
Words cannot express how much I LOATHE Steve Wynn. It sucks that the painting is now scarred but it makes me happy to know that he won't be making that $139 million afterall.
_________________ Frank Kevin
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me Cause it's so much easier to handle all my problems if I'm too far out to sea
Words cannot express how much I LOATHE Steve Wynn.
Could you at least give it a try? I don't know much about this guy other than he's a casino magnate.
Wynn is known as the most union-friendly casino owner in Vegas. He has always paid the top wages(with good benefits) in town (for virtually every position). When the Wynn Las Vegas opened they had 100,000 people apply for 10,000 jobs. Since he's been in Vegas he has provided a lot of people with a lot of good jobs.
There's no doubt that a certain amount of egomania is a given with people like Wynn, however you'd be silly to not admit that he's been a hugely positive force in the Vegas economy.
Honestly, I do feel a bit sorry for him in regards to this painting. It is one of the most famous in the world. I think that he probably feels worse about it than anyone.
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I don't know much about this guy other than he's a casino magnate.
