OT: Steve Wynn pokes hole in $139 million painting
A Man Beaten by Jacks
LOS ANGELES - Picasso’s famed “Dream” painting turned into a nightmare for Las
Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn when he accidentally gave the multimillion
dollar canvas an elbow.
Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his
painting, called “Le Reve” (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in the
artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks
ago.
Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron, who witnessed and related the incident in
her blog on the Huffington Post Web site (www.huffingtonpost.com), said Wynn had
raised his hand to show the group something about Picasso’s 1932 portrait of his
mistress Marie-Therese Walter.
“At that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There was
a terrible noise,” Ephron wrote, noting that Wynn has retinitis pigmentosa, an
eye disease that damages peripheral vision.
“Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. ’Oh
s---,’ he said. ’Look what I’ve done. Thank goodness it was me.’”
Wynn’s office on Tuesday confirmed the story, an account of which also appeared
in this week’s The New Yorker. Both accounts said Wynn had decided to release
the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting himself.
Wynn, a millionaire casino developer and art collector, developed the Mirage and
Bellagio resorts in Las Vegas in the 1990s, which spearheaded a profusion of
luxury hotels and casinos on the once-seedy Las Vegas Strip.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior
written consent of Reuters.
AtticusCole
On Oct 17 2006 9:29 PM, A Man Beaten by Jacks wrote:
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15310601/
>
> LOS ANGELES - Picasso s famed Dream painting turned into a nightmare for Las
> Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn when he accidentally gave the multimillion
> dollar canvas an elbow.
>
> Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his
> painting, called Le Reve (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in
> the
> artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks
> ago.
>
> Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron, who witnessed and related the incident
> in
> her blog on the Huffington Post Web site (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/),
> said Wynn
> had
> raised his hand to show the group something about Picasso s 1932 portrait of
> his
> mistress Marie-Therese Walter.
>
> At that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There
> was
> a terrible noise, Ephron wrote, noting that Wynn has retinitis pigmentosa, an
> eye disease that damages peripheral vision.
>
> Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. Oh
> s---, he said. Look what I ve done. Thank goodness it was me.
>
> Wynn s office on Tuesday confirmed the story, an account of which also
> appeared
> in this week s The New Yorker. Both accounts said Wynn had decided to release
> the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting himself.
>
> Wynn, a millionaire casino developer and art collector, developed the Mirage
> and
> Bellagio resorts in Las Vegas in the 1990s, which spearheaded a profusion of
> luxury hotels and casinos on the once-seedy Las Vegas Strip.
>
> Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or
> redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior
> written consent of Reuters.
Haha. I enjoyed that. Thanks.
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Douglas Dunn
A Man Beaten by Jacks wrote:
I can't imagine he has something of that value that isn't insured
against such accidents.
rgpo...@yahoo.com
Will an insurance company let you insure a $139 million dollar painting
against yourself sticking an elbow through it? Would there be some
clause about it not counting if you did it on purpose?
Omaholic
Yes.
>Would there be some
> clause about it not counting if you did it on purpose?
Yes.
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alan
"elbows" or other innocent damages. Fine Art policies usually cover
"all perils," including theft, a guest in your house spilling a drink
on a painting, even a meteor.
But in this case, I dont think the painting loses value. I think the
insurance would cover the cost of the repair and restoration. In
reality, many old paintings have in fact been restored when reframed,
etc.
if the painting was worth $139 mill before the elbow, it is still worth
$139 mill after the elbow.
the cost of repair and restoration migth only be a few hundred dollars.
to be honest, these things happen all the time.
Dave Budd
--
"He just said it had an 'x'."
"It isn't their necks I mind," said Piglet earnestly.
"It's their teeth."
Harkness
A Man Beaten by Jacks wrote:
If Wynn had done it intentionally, it would have been an astonishing
piece of Dada performance art, with bonus points for having the
foresight to invite the press.
John Harkness
da pickle
> If Wynn had done it intentionally, it would have been an astonishing
> piece of Dada performance art, with bonus points for having the
> foresight to invite the press.
It does not appear that there is an actual photograph of the elbow in the
painting ... that may have been worth a few million right there! Maybe
there is an artist that will paint an "art" rendition of the event ... if it
is an oil it may be worth twice that. Better yet, make a cast of his arm
and buy the actual suit jacket used and make it a set piece sculpture ... or
maybe bring in Madam Trousseau ... that's likely the highest and best
solution! (I am pretty sure Wynn would not let them freeze dry him for the
presentation.)
David Nicoson
> I can't imagine he has something of that value that isn't insured
> against such accidents.
I can imagine that. Wynn doesn't seem risk adverse. I'm going to
assume he doesn't have a cash flow problem. What purpose would
insurance serve him?
I'm a bit skeptical of insurance in general, so my bias shows I'm sure.
A Man Beaten by Jacks
>Actually, policies covering art do indeed insure losses caused by
>"elbows" or other innocent damages. Fine Art policies usually cover
>"all perils," including theft, a guest in your house spilling a drink
>on a painting, even a meteor.
It would seem these would be for its appraised value, not for
"whatever it gets bid up to at the next auction I take it to."
>But in this case, I dont think the painting loses value. I think the
>insurance would cover the cost of the repair and restoration. In
>reality, many old paintings have in fact been restored when reframed,
>etc.
>if the painting was worth $139 mill before the elbow, it is still worth
>$139 mill after the elbow.
It seems unlikely the painting was actually insured for $139 million prior
to it selling for that at auction. If insurance companies routinely paid out
prices like that, where an item sold for an unexpectedly high amount
and somehow got damaged in between the sale and delivery, it would
invite collusion between buyers and sellers for the purpose of insurance
fraud.
>the cost of repair and restoration migth only be a few hundred dollars.
The damage to the painting was so publicized that it almost certainly has
damaged the property's reputation. I doubt it would sell for $139 million
again.
Michael Sullivan
I would guess more than that. Would you be willing to work on a
$139million asset that you could potentially destroy for only a couple
hundred bucks an hour? That said, the restoration in the worst case
won't cost more than a small fraction of the value of the painting.
The question I have (and I'm not a fine art investment expert) is
whether the restored painting is really worth as much as the pristine
version. I'm certain it wouldn't lose all it's value, but I know that
antique furniture loses a *lot* of value when it does not have the
original finish, even if it's a near perfect restoration of the
original.
I have no idea what the market would do to the value after an incident
like this. I doubt it would lose 50% of it's value after repair, but it
seems like it could lose a significant chunk, especially if any piece of
the original painting was destroyed beyond saving and has to be redone.
Michael
--
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Michael Sullivan
[$139mil painting damaged]
> I can't imagine he has something of that value that isn't insured
> against such accidents.
Insurance is designed to make money for the insurer. People buy
insurance only because they can't afford the risk of loss. They accept
-EV to keep from getting a huge loss that they can't afford. Wynn is
worth something like 4billion, according to Forbes. He can probably
fade the loss, so why wouldn't he self-insure? I don't buy collision on
my cars for similar reasons. (I don't drive new cars, and while a 5-10k
hit sucks, it's not like I'd have to go without food to pay it).
Michael Sullivan
Insurance is designed to make money for the insurer. People buy
insurance only because they can't afford the risk of loss. Wynn is
worth something like 4billion, according to Forbes, he can probably fade
the loss. I'm guessing the painting, repaired is still worth at least
50% of the $139mil.