The American Dream - gashed

So imagine you're at the top of the pile - you've made your fortune, you've got some nice pictures on the walls of your pad - you know the sort of thing - a few Cézannes, Renoirs, Picassos, etc. You've built a 59 story hotel and casino and named it after your favourite painting, (lets say it's a Picasso, Le Reve maybe) but you've been offered a tidy sum - I don't know, let's say $139,000,000 - and it's the worlds largest sum ever paid for a painting. So you have a few friends round to say goodbye to the painting and you're enthusing and gesticulating about what a great painting this is when suddenly Rrriiiiippp - you've just stuck your elbow through the painting. Gutted? I should say - and then some! Well, unbelievably, this is exactly what happened to Steve Wynn (as reported here by the BBC).

Well, the deals off, of course, and that's a $90,000,000 profit down the drain - not to mention the extra $3.99 for the masking tape to stick it back together again, although actually - looking at the painting it looks like the woman in the picture (Picasso's mistress, Thérèse Walter) may have covered up the gash herself to avoid embarrasment!


Picasso's Le Reve (The Dream) - damaged goods