Vegas Mogul Punctures Precious Painting

by | Oct 18, 2006

Nora Ephron witnessed some crazy shit in Las Vegas recently. And everyone was fully clothed!

According to her report on Huffington Post, billionaire developer Steve Wynn (a friend of Ephron’s) put his elbow through a Picasso he was about to sell for $139 million (he paid $48.4 million for it in 1997). No painting has ever sold for that amount. Not yet. But this one–Picasso’s 1932 portrait of his mistress–almost did.

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Ephron says Wynn was glad it was him who did the damage. You have to admire a man who can accept responsibility and shrug off a nine-figure loss like that.

For more on the story see The New Yorker’s version.