OK, so it was not the wisest decision, but it ended up being fun. Heading toward Boulder in snowstorm for a concert didn’t work out so well with interstate blockages and such. But thankfully Brianne and her parents are wonderful hosts and let us use their hot-tub and swim suits. Rolling around in slippery snow and stepping back into the water didn’t prove wise for me either, as I somehow bruised and battered my toe to the point of possible breakage. I feel silly, but probably not as bad as this guy, who gave Picasso's dream the elbow.Reuters reports (Handout photo, left): Picasso's famed "Dream" painting turned into a nightmare for Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn when he accidentally gave the multimillion-dollar canvas an elbow.
Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his painting, called "Le Reve" (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in the artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks ago.
Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron, who witnessed and related the incident in her blog on the Huffington Post Web site (www.huffingtonpost.com), said Wynn had raised his hand to show the group something about Picasso's 1932 portrait of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter.
"At that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There was a terrible noise," Ephron wrote, noting that Wynn has retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that damages peripheral vision.
"Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Oh s---,' he said. 'Look what I've done. Thank goodness it was me.'"
Wynn's office on Tuesday confirmed the story, an account of which also appeared in this week's The New Yorker. Both accounts said Wynn had decided to release the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting himself.
Wynn, a millionaire casino developer and art collector, developed The Mirage and Bellagio resorts in Las Vegas in the 1990s, which spearheaded a profusion of luxury hotels and casinos on the once-seedy Las Vegas Strip.
3 comments:
1) If you recall, a broken toe brought me to my love for biking. I wonder what's ahead for you.... You're right though, that's a great story!
2) You are the master of finding random news. That's pretty hilarious/sad! Sounds like something I might do, which is why I am a mud-loving mountain biker rather than a museum curator.
Hahaha. Soooo funny. I used that story as a journal this morning in a "what if you were in an art museum and accidently broke something. What would you do? Tell me a story." Stinking hilarious what middle schoolers wrote... "I'd probably run away." or "Later, I saw myself on America's Most Wanted."
Glad you had fun last night. Let's barn dance soon... like maybe Friday night?
I like Picasso. especially the portrait of his art dealer.
ps. if you were on your way to Mat Kearney... I am jealous. I gather you didn't make it? sad.
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