Steve Wynn accidentally pokes hole in $139m Picasso painting

Whoa!

NORM: Wynn accidentally damages Picasso


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 ****, 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.

 

OH MY GOD... WTF?!!? This SUCKS!!

That's one of my favorite paintings in the world....

 

I'm guessing its insured...

 

It doesn't matter. The guy is a ****ing idiot.

 

what ******

 

I guess he didn't see that coming.

 

What, you didn't read it? It was his elbow!

 

It's pretty well known that Wynn has eyesight trouble...

 

HE will have the painting professionally restored and when done nobody will be able to tell it was ever damaged without a microscope. What is today an artistic disaster will in years to come be "patina" and an interesting background story....

A girl I went to college with does restoration on antique pottery. I dont mean your grandmom broken wedding china.... I mean 1500 year old Chinese porcelain and such. It can take months of incredibly precise work to restore a broken piece, but when she is done even a professional cannot tell with the naked eye and the original surface is preserved. How? I have no idea, but she gets big $ for the talent and skills.

Lots (if not most) old paintings have been restored.... some many times. So it goes, nothing is free from the ravages of age, or the carelessness of a visually challenged filthy rich guy!



Terry

 

Aren't most paintings of such value usually covered in a glass case or some type of covering.

 

and didn't he just sell it to someone? and wasn't that a record price for a privately sold piece of artwork?

 

Not necessarily. This usually isn't the case with oils, but pastels for example and certain other media sometimes react badly when covered with glass, unless a vacuum is created and an inert gas pumped in.

Also, with certain paintings, it's harder to appreciate the "impasto" character of the brushwork (i.e. thick paint that gives the surface of the painting an almost 3D texture) under glass. Picasso paintings (as well as Van Gogh) are like that...

Incidentally, this is a crappy pic I was able to pull off the net (the real painting is so much more impressive), but here's the artwork in question...

J.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Its good to know I am not the only one that makes mistakes!

 

Is that a penis on the forehead? If so..... it should be renamed dickhead

 

ahahah ... all I can think of is the movie "Mr Bean". LMAO!!!

 

The funny thing to me is that looks like something a 10 year old could have drawn and colored.

 

This wouldn't be the first time a painting has needed repair. I think the Mona Lisa was damaged by vandals and repaired.

 

It sure as hell DOES look like a penis on her head. Thanks for pointing that out, I don't want it now.

 

I have never understood art. Period. I also think it looks like a 10 year old drawing. I guess people can say the same about why are we so into cars... but I still think spending lots of money on art like this is a waste, no matter how much money you have.

 

Apparently you have never seen an original Picasso.

 

Do they ALL incorporate a penis?

 

Art at the higher end can be a big investment.

 

I've saw the Mona Lisa in the Louve, and couldnt for the life of me figure out what was so special.

 

Cuz her eyes follow you like one of the gouls in a Scooby Doo cartoon.

 

Same here. There were just a ton of people around it and taking pictures as it sat behind thick glass. I don't think it looks anything special to me. I prefer the impressionism period.