$70 million Picasso painting accidentally damaged, pulled from auction

[Rusty_Blazenhoff]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/16/70-million-picasso-painting-a.html

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[Faffenreffer]

@Rusty_Blazenhoff

In 2006, Mr. Wynn, who suffers from the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, accidentally put his elbow through the canvas of Picasso’s celebrated 1932 masterwork “Le Rêve,” which he had agreed to sell to the billionaire hedge fund collector Steven A. Cohen for $135 million. The painting was restored and was eventually sold to Mr. Cohen in 2013 for $155 million.

Most things are not improved to the tune of $20 million when a sadistic, vulgar oaf puts his elbow through them. But Picasso paintings? Definitely.

[Akimbo_NOT]

What the hell? Was Wynn using fine art for Twister parties?

BTW I’d take a damaged Picasso in a heart beat.

[Boundegar]

A Nazi camp? Why? Just for being Spanish? Or maybe they just hated cubism?

[Frederick_Hagemeiste]

I’ve worked retail management. This is nothing a starburst sticker can’t solve. Move that thing out of here.

[GulliverFoyle]

[GulliverFoyle]

@Boundegar

A Nazi camp? Why? Just for being Spanish? Or maybe they just hated cubism?

You joke, but…

Pablo Picasso | World War II and late 1940s: 1939–1949

During the Second World War, Picasso remained in Paris while the Germans occupied the city. Picasso’s artistic style did not fit the Nazi ideal of art, so he did not exhibit during this time. He was often harassed by the Gestapo. During one search of his apartment, an officer saw a photograph of the painting Guernica. “Did you do that?” the German asked Picasso. “No,” he replied, “You did”.

[Frederick_Hagemeiste]

And then this:
On 5 February 2003 a large blue curtain was placed to cover this work at the UN, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations. On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines and screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, and that a horse’s hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Some diplomats, however, in talks with journalists claimed that the Bush Administration pressured UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other US diplomats argued for war on Iraq.

[MaiqTheLiar]

Horses asses the lot of 'em.

[Boundegar]

A joke at the expense of fascism is never wasted.

[fiatrn]

they didn’t just hate cubism - it was one of the art styles referred to as Degenerate art, and was more than just frowned upon. It was ok to steal cubist art and sell it to non-germans, but otherwise it was basically forbidden. Like most other ‘modern’ art of the time, many cubist paintings were destroyed by the Nazis. (I just read The Rape of Europa. An awesome book - scholarly but fully enjoyable as a story, too).