What began as a 40 million dollar "Uh-oh" is now a 54 million dollar "Oopsy."You may recall this little story from October of last year.It was published on Kovel's Comments Newletter as follows:He may have built a few Las Vegas casinos, but Steve Wynn, in spite of his money and amazing art collection, is just like the rest of us.Accidents happen.He had just sold his Picasso painting to another collector for $139 million when he raised his arm to point out a feature of the painting of Picasso's mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, to friends.Somehow his elbow shoved back into Marie-Therese's arm, making a 2-inch hole with two 3-inch rips radiating from the center.“Oh s---,” he said, according to a friend who was there. “Look what I’ve done. Thank God it was me.”Every collector has had that feeling. No way to undo an accident. He later offered to cancel the sale, and decided to repair the painting and keep it.Now, here's the latest from the Kovel's:How much is a hole in a painting worth?Steve Wynn accidentally raised his elbow and made a hole in the $139 million Picasso he had just sold. He cancelled the sale and had the painting repaired for $90,000.Now he is fighting with Lloyd’s of London over the lost value of the painting.He claims the painting is only worth $85 million now, a loss of $54 million.
Lloyd’s has offered to pay the $90,000 repair cost and the $21,000 consultant’s fee for the restoration and increased security needed while the painting was being repaired. Wynn filed a lawsuit against Lloyd’s on January 11, 2007 and a day later, they started negotiating.Does a repaired hole seen only under black light reduce the value of the painting by about 40%?Time will tell.--from Kovel's Comments
