This is difficult to imagine.
Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn poked a hole in a Picasso painting that he had just sold for $139 million. Now if an employee had made the fatal oops, they probably would’ve been executed casino-mafia style.
In this case, it wasn’t buyers-keepers as Wynn didn’t hold the buyer to the sale. Read more.
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2006.
The account in this week’s New Yorker is great— according to their report, the other paintings on the wall were a Renoir, and a Matisse. Imagine if it had been the Renoir! I gotta wonder, though— canvas, especially painted canvas, is pretty strong. Wynn must have some sharp-ass elbows.