Posted on 10/17/2006 9:01:12 PM PDT by verum ago
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.
2076th reason for Duct Tape.
Oooh. :(
How can they tell?
Yeah. It's old. It will add character. I would up the price.
"Oh shit, look what I've done," Wynn said,
Posted already
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1720943/posts
That's gonna leave a mark.
Hang it over the mantle and put a vase in front of it.
As someone who thinks that paying more than $100 for a work of art is absurd, I find this story hilarious.
Now I remember why I've never been a big Picasso fan.
Wouldn't be surprised if it's now worth more!
"Wynn accidentally damages Picasso"
Picasso died over 30 years ago - how much more damage could Wynn have possibly done him?
So what. It is garbage anyway. Picasso is just another artist too lazy to get a real job. They fool people with their absurd kindergarten artwork. Now if it were a Remmington or Russel, that would be another story.
I knew a guy once who picked up a painting for the boss which wasn't quite dry and got damaged in transport. He fixed it with some ink from the print shop. The boss never knew the difference.
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