Watch Those Elbows: Wynn’s $139 Million Picasso Joins N.Y. Show
By Lindsay Pollock
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Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) — A $139 million Picasso painting damaged by billionaire owner Stephen Wynn when he somehow poked his elbow through it will be publicly shown for the first time since the 2006 mishap.
The patched-up “Le Reve,” or “The Dream,” owned by the Las Vegas casino operator, is part of a Picasso exhibit opening Oct. 15 at Acquavella Galleries on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Other lenders to “Picasso’s Marie-Therese” include the Metropolitan Museum of Art and collector Steven Cohen, founder of hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors LLC.
Dealers estimated the show includes more than $500 million in artwork, though most isn’t for sale — including “Le Reve.”
“He has no intention of selling it,” said Nick Acquavella, a gallery director.
Wynn, who has an eye impairment, accidentally put a silver- dollar-sized hole in the 1932 portrait of Picasso’s sexy blonde mistress Marie-Therese Walter while showing it to friends, who included the writer Nora Ephron. The 2006 incident occurred less than 24 hours after he agreed to sell “Le Reve” to Cohen for $139 million. The sale was eventually canceled.
The tear was repaired and the erotic painting of Picasso’s dozing lover, with her left breast exposed, usually hangs in Wynn’s Las Vegas office.
“To the naked eye, you can’t really see anything,” Acquavella sai