Steve Wynn: Elbow punctures $139 million Picasso
In late September 2006, while Steve Wynn was showing Picasso’s 1932 work Le Rêve to guests including Nora Ephron and Barbara Walters in his Las Vegas office, his right elbow, during a gesture, punched through the canvas, leaving a hole about the size of a dollar coin and a tear, amid peripheral vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa. About a day, or 36 hours, earlier, he had already reached an agreement with hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen to sell the painting for $139 million, and the deal was then canceled.
Wynn decided to keep and restore the painting. The restoration cost was about $85,000 to $122,000 (one record in court documents listed about $90,000). He later sued Lloyd’s of London, claiming about $54 million in damages for the loss in value (based on a post-restoration valuation of about $85 million), and the two sides eventually settled. In 2013, Cohen bought the same restored painting from Wynn for $155 million, $16 million more than the original 2006 price; professionals said the damage was almost imperceptible to the naked eye after restoration.
Wynn had purchased the painting in 1997 for $48.4 million. The 2013 transaction was reported as one of the highest prices paid by an American collector at the time. Before and after buying the painting, Cohen was negotiating a settlement with regulators over trading investigations related to SAC Capital, amounting to about $616 million.
Original sources:
Title: An elbow to ‘Le Reve’ and he feels like a heel Publisher: Los Angeles Times / Associated Press Date: 2006-11-13 URL: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-nov-13-et-wynn13-story.html Source type: news report Verification: key original passages read Supporting content: accident details, guest list, $139 million agreement, restoration cost, Wynn’s original purchase price
Title: Years After The Elbow Incident, Steve Wynn Sells Picasso's 'Le Rêve' For $155 Million Publisher: NPR Date: 2013-03-26 URL: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/03/26/175412881/years-after-the-elbow-incident-steve-wynn-sells-picassos-le-r-ve-for-155-million Source type: news report Verification: read Supporting content: 2013 sale for $155 million to Cohen, restoration effect, background
Title: EXCLUSIVE: SAC’s Cohen buys $155M Picasso after settling trading probe Publisher: Page Six Date: 2013-03-26 URL: https://pagesix.com/2013/03/26/exclusive-sacs-cohen-buys-155m-picasso-after-settling-trading-probe/ Source type: news report Verification: read Supporting content: $155 million transaction, the 2006 original agreement and incident, insurance payout
ABAB AI Insight
The 2006 incident occurred during a pre-closing viewing, not on the formal closing date. Wynn’s retinitis pigmentosa was a publicly known physical condition, and the elbow strike was a gesture-related risk under that condition, rather than a purely random act of “good spirits.” After the deal was canceled, he chose to keep the painting and restore it himself, while also seeking compensation for the loss in value through an insurance lawsuit, forming a path of “retain the asset + cash compensation.”
The 2013 resale to the same buyer at a higher price shows that Cohen’s preference for the painting was enduring, and the restoration quality was professionally assessed as not affecting the observable condition. The $16 million price increase took place during a period when top-tier art prices were rising overall, and it also coincided with the timing of Cohen’s financial arrangements after completing a large regulatory settlement.
In art transactions, the relationship between physical damage and value is not linear. In this case, the damage halted the short-term transaction and triggered insurance disputes, but after professional restoration it did not prevent a later sale at a higher price. The buyer still completed the purchase despite knowing the painting’s history of damage, showing that the intensity of demand for a specific work can outweigh a known record of physical repair.
This event turned “physical damage caused by the owner’s behavior” from a typical factor of depreciation into a known history that could be absorbed by later transactions. For high-net-worth collectors, the restoration cost (around the $100,000 level) was extremely small relative to the transaction price ($130 million to $155 million), so the capital path depended more on the continuity of buyer preference and broader market price trends than on whether the damage was “invisible to the naked eye.”
ABAB News · Cognition Law
The owner’s gesture-related damage before closing shifted the transaction from price negotiation to an asset path of “keep + restore + insurance.”
An item with known damage still sold at a higher price after professional restoration, indicating that a specific buyer’s preference can outweigh physical history.
When the restoration cost is negligible relative to a nine-figure transaction price, damage turns from a value-depressing item into a known record that the market can absorb.