Luck runs out for casino boss who destroyed $139m Picasso
A casino mogul botched his own plans to sell a famous Picasso painting when he stuck his elbow through it while talking about it.
Steve Wynn bought Picasso’s 1932 Le Reve (The Dream) painting in 1997 for $48.4 million and entered into a contract to sell it for a world-record $139 million before he destroyed it.
Mr Wynn was gesticulating animatedly about the painting to friends and acquaintances Barbara Walters and Nora Ephron when he inadvertently stuck his elbow through the middle of the painting, leaving a hole the “size of a silver dollar.”
His first reaction to his costly poke according to Ms Ephron was to say “Oh s*, look what I’ve done.
“Thank goodness it was me.”
Ms Ephron also noted that Mr Wynn suffers from a degenerative eye disease that affects his peripheral vision.
The sale of Le Reve, a portrait of Picasso’s mistress Marie-Therese Walter, will no longer take place and Mr Wynn instead will to restore and keep the painting.
Now doubt he has had better luck with his casino empire!