So, Steve Wynn, of Wynn Casino in Las Vegas, was finalizing a deal to sell a classic Picasso last week for the sum of $140 million. After the agreement was signed, but before the painting could be transferred, Wynn accidentally bumped into the painting creating a 2-inch tear with his elbow.
While I get nauxious just thinking about being able to shrug off that kind of money, I’m very impressed with his response, spoken later that evening;
My feeling was, It’s a picture, it’s my picture, we’ll fix it. Nobody got sick or died. It’s a picture. It took Picasso five hours to paint it.
A tremendous amount of money. However, I think it shows a lot of class to aknowledge that in the end, death, sickness, and true misfortune have nothing to do with stuff.
Did that accident added more to that original price for the painting? Did you think that Picasso would have been glad upon seeing that tear in his painting?
There are some things that happen without us expecting it. Some things were discovered in serendipity and in addition to this fact there are accidents that could add more to the value of an artwork.
John