NORM: Wynn accidentally damages Picasso

Reviewjournal.com ^ | Oct. 17, 2006 | Norm Clarke

[Abathar]

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.

[pillut48]

[Abathar]

LOL!

[Quilla]

None of Picasso's works blow my skirt up - maybe I'm simply pointing out how uncouth I really am. ;-)

[Abathar]

It's because he was first, now most any high school art class has about the same thing hanging on all the walls. Compared to the Mona Lisa he comes up far short.

[tioga]

Guess I would make a poor art connoisseur......I don't like it.

[sarasota]

Nah. It's just a tribute to his ego to be thrilled by a piece of canvas with some paint on it.

[ArrogantBustard]

If it's BS, call it BS. The trendy and the pseudo-sophisticated can gush all they like over BS, but it still stinks.

[east1234]

What is that sticking out of her chin? Was Picasso a congressional page?

[Delta 21]

"Oh shit, look what I've done,"

HA HA

[lakeman]

Reminds me of a show I saw on the toob of a guy showing an original clay recording(round tube shaped) the poor fellow had the shakes or something and grabbed to hard and it crushed. He was visibly devastated.

[Abathar]

Your right, unless you find one at a garage sale for $20. Then they have the greatest sense of worth in the world....

[knarf]

Hey .. I remember her ... on a rooftop on Beacon Hill .. Murhy St., I think .. a beautiful, balmy summer evening/morning (who really knew through all the acid .. ) we ..

What?
1932?
Oh ... no .... I was thinking more like 1968 or 9.

Never mind.

[Toby06]

The reaction?

[Toby06]

damnit.

[theDentist]

We all have our tastes... I think it's pretty cool...

[Thrownatbirth]

Wynn can blame the Francoists.

[CarrotAndStick]

The new 'Le Reve' :

[bunches]

My little 3 year old boy, years ago, accidentally sat on a chair at the Toledo Museum of Art that was a replica of a medieval lord's chair or something. It wasn't roped off so he plopped right on it and said "Hi Mommy!".

With the look that the museum guard gave me you would think we had stolen the "Mona Lisa" (which wasn't there anyway)or carted off the Egyptian Mummy (which was).

I especially hate going into the glass museum where the glass sculpters or whatever are out on the floor as opposed to behind cases. I walk with my arms straight at my side and dip in and out of passersbys. It is quite comical.

Sigh...sometime it is easier to just view art in a book!

[knarf]

Good one, Delta 21 .. Good one !

[ikka]

Cue the scene from Mr. Bean's film ...