Not Exactly a Wynn Win
Woe to the Stevie’s. Who knew that an errant elbow would send a colossal art deal into the crapper?
Looked to me like a fight for bragging rights. Two of the biggest “Look at me! I can spend obscene amounts of money on art!” collectors—hotelier Steve Wynn and hedge funder Steven Cohen—appeared ready to best Ronald Lauder’s record price for a work of art ($135 million, paid this summer for a picture by Gustave Klimt) by all of $4 million. Word has it that Cohen had long coveted Wynn’s Picasso portrait of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter entitled Le Rêve (”The Dream”), a 1932 masterpiece, and the two reportedly had drawn up a contract for $139 million, brokered by Wynn’s dealer William Acquavella.
That resounding plink, plink, plink sound you’ve heard the last few years in the art world? That’s trophy hunter Cohen dropping the big ducats. While he is reputed to be notoriously private, the sale prices of his purchases (most of which are far out of whack with fair market value) seem to always get out. Among his eclectic, record-breaking purchases reported over his five or so years of collecting: $8 million (or $12 million, depending on the source) for a decaying Damien Hirst shark in formaldehyde, $25 million for an Andy Warhol painting of Superman, $52 million for a Jackson Pollock drip painting and, most recently, $63 million for Willem de Kooning abstraction, which he acquired from media mogul David Geffen. I find it odd that, while Cohen is revered on Wall Street as an extraordinarily shrewd trader (a “trailblazing star of the hedge-fund world boom,” gushed the WSJ) he so consistently overpays for his art, by such huge margins.
Wynn, meanwhile, is no slouch, best known for building a splashy collection of impressionist and early modernist pictures for his Bellagio hotel gallery in Vegas. He had apparently bought Le Rêve (for an undisclosed sum) from a European collector, who had picked it up in 1997 for $48.4 million. At the time, Wynn was in the midst of building a new resort casino, where he planned to make Le Rêve not only the centerpiece of its art collection, but at one point, the name of the whole damn place. Eventually he thought better of it and decided to name it after himself instead. So much for poetry. This is Vegas, after all.
The picture was being readied for delivery when, a few weeks ago, Picasso’s “dream” turned into a nightmare. Wynn was in the office of his Las Vegas hotel and casino, showing off the portrait to some friends (Nora Ephron and Barbara Walters, among them), talking about the impending sale and the picture’s illustrious provenance, when he accidentally got too close and poked his (apparently pointy) elbow right through the canvas. Oh man. Big collective wince.
Upon hearing of the accident, dealer Acquavella, who was likely already celebrating his fabulous commission, was said to have responded with a plaintive “Nooooooo!”
Here are the gory details, from an eyewitness to the event:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephron/
my-weekend-in-vegas_b_31800.html
October 19th, 2006 16:48
Steven A.Cohen is my younger brother and he told about the purchase before Mr.Wynn added his own feature to the painting. My brother’s staff was working on the funding of the contract during the same time Mr.Wynn was adding his final improvement. The whole family was dissappointed for Steve since he wanted this painting very much ! Between the “Shark” problem and this event you wonder if Steve should stick to Hedge Funds.
Steve has collected in secret the largest american political campaign items collection in american history. The collection includes a double sided painted Abe Lincoln campaign banner from 1864.
The collection includes political flags,banners,poster,campaign buttons, and items owned by different presidents and the losers. This collection is a national treasure that never gets any press, it used to be displayed in his offices before the new building was built. The collection is very deep in Teddy Roosevelt material from 1898-1912 as well recent presidents like Harry Truman and JFK. He owns the single best political button, a one of a kind picture pin of James Cox and Franklin Roosevelt (running for Vice President) valued over $ 250,000.00 from the election of 1920. I can not begin to outline the top of the line material he has collected over the years.The broadside of Taylor and Filmore from 1848 is one of a kind. The future plans of the this collection as not been decided but his interest are more than just over priced artwork. One day this material will be made availble to the public and you will see the value in his collecting interest.
November 30th, 2006 19:20
This art/viewer engagement is no more than ‘communication’. Art is in the display of the object and not the creation of the object. Whether we like it or not the gallery or museum are intrinsic to the value (financial or critical) of the art object. The artist seeks the exhibition and the attention. They may not seek the associated celebrity status, they may not seek the extremes of financial reward that can be generated through engineered publicity but they do seek the exhibition of their work.
If these arenas are important, then they are important for a reason, and the only common reason is that it puts the notion of the creator of the work, as an artist, in the public domain.
December 5th, 2006 01:06
It’s unfortunate that The Cohen Family was unable to acquire the infamous Le’Reve from Steve Wynn.
Rumor has it that…..”SW” will have the opportunity to acquire “The Manuel, Sweet 16 Collection, from Spain”(in 3-D).
Like the skyline of Vegas, will Wynn change the art world too, and “really” win?
April 4th, 2007 08:01
[…] Never mind that Koons’ auction record already hovers around $5.5 million, for that monument to kitsch, Michael Jackson and Bubbles. Or that Koons, a former commodities broker, has perfected the art of puckering up to patrons. Cohen routinely pays triple market value. Or more. The fact is, $17 mil is loose change to Stevie. We’re talking about the guy who reportedly bought a de Kooning woman painting from David Geffen for $137.5 million last fall. And who was on deck to snag Picasso’s La Reve for $139 million—that is, until the seller, hotelier Steve Wynn, poked his pointy elbow through it. […]
April 27th, 2007 12:37
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