Billionaire puts elbow through priceless Picasso

NEW YORK - Steve Wynn has sharp elbows. How else would he have risen to become one of the most successful - and wealthy - casino moguls in the world with his newest property, simply called the Wynn, reigning as the most luxurious hotel on the Las Vegas strip? Should you bump into him, however, best to avoid all mention of arms, elbows and other limbs to yourself.

If Mr Wynn is a little sensitive on the subject, it may have something to do with a most ghastly incident that occurred in his office at the Wynn earlier this month. It involves a priceless Picasso and a large hole.

The Picasso in question is 'Le Reve', the 1932 portrait of the painter's mistress, Marie-Therese Walters, that is surely among his best-known masterpieces.

It is one of numerous important canvasses owned by Mr Wynn, many of which have at different times adorned his casino resorts. But among all those in his collection, Le Reve held a special place in his heart. He nearly named the Wynn after it, presumably before vanity demanded otherwise.

Instead the Cirque de Soleil show that is in residence there is called Le Reve.

He bought the picture in 1997 from another collector for $48.4 million. Priceless, in fact, is not quite accurate. For Mr Wynn recently agreed to sell it to a Connecticut hedge fund billionaire, Steven Cohen, for $139 million.

Such was his excitement over the sale - the most money ever offered for a single painting - he bubbled forth with the news to some pals who had arrived in town at about the same time.

Disaster was only around the corner when Mr Wynn invited these friends, among them the writer Nora Ephron and broadcaster Barbara Walters, to come by his office to view the Picasso before it left for Connecticut. Of course, they accepted.

They stood politely and gaped as Mr Wynn gushed about the work and its history.

As described this week in an online blog posted by Ms Ephron, it was at this moment that Mr Wynn took a couple of fateful steps back.

He is a man prone to extravagant gesticulations and somehow his elbow made contact with the canvas, specifically with the left forearm of the curvaceous mistress.

"His elbow crashed backward right through the canvas," Ms Ephron writes. "There was a terrible noise."

If at first no one in the room knew where to look, there was really no ignoring what their host had done.

There, says Ms Ephron, was "a black hole the size of a silver dollar - or, to be more exactly, the size of the tip of Steve Wynn's elbow -- with two three-inch long rips coming off it in either direction".

Mr Wynn, who is 64, suffers from a disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which means he has trouble with peripheral vision.

It might explain his moment of most colossal, not to mention costly, clumsiness.

"Oh shit, look what I've done," he finally muttered to his guests, according to Ms Ephron, before adding, "Thank God it was me".

He then telephoned his wife, Elaine, and said, "You'll never believe what I've just done".

All present decided at once that the least they could do for the mortified host was to tell no one what had happened. At least that would allow him time to break the news gently to Mr Cohen in Connecticut.

It was completely clear, of course, that Le Reve had become damaged goods and the sale was in serious jeopardy.

Someone's resolve broke, however - as always happens - and snippets of what had happened reached a New York tabloid, prompting Mr Wynn to confess to a writer with the New Yorker.

He described a distinct ripping sound as his elbow did its work.

"We all just stopped. I said, 'I can't believe I just did that. Oh, shit. Oh, man.'"

Today, Le Reve is in the hands of a restorer in Manhattan who has promised, given eight weeks or so, to return it to its pre-elbowed state.

Steve and Elaine Wynn have meanwhile decided the accident was fate telling them not to sell the picture. So they will keep it and Mr Cohen is left to nurse his disappointment.

- INDEPENDENT