MiddleFinger
10-19-2006, 11:19 PM
Casino boss puts elbow through a £74m Picasso
By Catherine Elsworth in New York
Last Updated: 1:52am BST 20/10/2006
A casino mogul had to pull out of the largest ever deal for a painting when he accidentally put his elbow through his prized Picasso.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/10/19/wpicasso19.jpgPablo Picasso's Le Reve
Steve Wynn, the hotelier and art collector (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml;jsessionid=DXR5AU3EHOC0HQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ 0IV0?xml=/arts/2006/09/03/svrussian03.xml), was showing Pablo Picasso's Le Reve (The Dream) to friends in the office of his luxury Las Vegas hotel shortly after finalising a deal to sell the picture for $139 million (£74 million).
Mr Wynn, who suffers from an eye condition that affects peripheral vision, struck the picture with his right elbow while gesturing as he spoke about the work, said Denise Randazzo, his spokesman.
He had agreed to sell the painting to Steven Cohen, a hedge fund investor. Mr Wynn bought the work in 1997 for $48.4 million.
The sale would have beaten the record set by the cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder, who paid a reported $135 million for Gustav Klimt's 1907 portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer I in July.
Le Reve, a 1932 portrait of Picasso's mistress Marie-Therese Walter, was left with a coin-sized hole in the canvas, according to Nora Ephron, the director and screenwriter, who was in the office when the mishap occurred. " 'Oh s***,' he said. 'Look what I've done'," was the hotelier's reaction, according to Ephron's weblog. Mr Wynn had raised his hand to show the group a detail on the painting, she wrote.
The tycoon now plans to keep and restore the painting.
link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/19/wpicasso19.xml)
By Catherine Elsworth in New York
Last Updated: 1:52am BST 20/10/2006
A casino mogul had to pull out of the largest ever deal for a painting when he accidentally put his elbow through his prized Picasso.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/10/19/wpicasso19.jpgPablo Picasso's Le Reve
Steve Wynn, the hotelier and art collector (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml;jsessionid=DXR5AU3EHOC0HQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ 0IV0?xml=/arts/2006/09/03/svrussian03.xml), was showing Pablo Picasso's Le Reve (The Dream) to friends in the office of his luxury Las Vegas hotel shortly after finalising a deal to sell the picture for $139 million (£74 million).
Mr Wynn, who suffers from an eye condition that affects peripheral vision, struck the picture with his right elbow while gesturing as he spoke about the work, said Denise Randazzo, his spokesman.
He had agreed to sell the painting to Steven Cohen, a hedge fund investor. Mr Wynn bought the work in 1997 for $48.4 million.
The sale would have beaten the record set by the cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder, who paid a reported $135 million for Gustav Klimt's 1907 portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer I in July.
Le Reve, a 1932 portrait of Picasso's mistress Marie-Therese Walter, was left with a coin-sized hole in the canvas, according to Nora Ephron, the director and screenwriter, who was in the office when the mishap occurred. " 'Oh s***,' he said. 'Look what I've done'," was the hotelier's reaction, according to Ephron's weblog. Mr Wynn had raised his hand to show the group a detail on the painting, she wrote.
The tycoon now plans to keep and restore the painting.
link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/19/wpicasso19.xml)