Billionaire Trader Buys Picasso Masterpiece for $155 Million
- March 27, 2013 22:45
Long coveted by billionaire trader Steven A. Cohen, Picasso's iconic “Le Rêve” is now his to keep, and only two weeks after his hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors agreed to pay the government $616 million in a settlement over insider trading accusations.
An unnamed source with knowledge of the sale says that Cohen purchased the prized Picasso from casino mogul Stephen A. Wynn for $155 million. The price would place it among the world's most expensive private art sales.
Cohen, who owns artworks by Pollock, Manet and Monet as well as contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, is worth $9.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
He has denied any wrongdoing in regards to the government's case against SAC.
“Le Rêve” is Picasso’s 1932 rendition of his mistress and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter asleep in an armchair. Cohen wanted to buy it from Wynn in 2006, for $135 million, but the deal fell through after Wynn put his elbow through the canvas. Wynn, who has an eye disease, had the work repaired by a professional art restorer.
The New York Post originally reported the Picasso sale.
_-Closing-the-Distance_100x100_c.jpg "Lot 204: Bob Kuhn (1920–2007),Closing the Distance, 1977, acrylic on masonite, 24 x 48 in, Sold: $409,500")
![A 19th century Seven Piece "Chrysanthemum" Pattern Sterling Silver Coffee & Tea Service, which was exhibited in the Tiffany & Co. booth at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago](/images/c/78/96/Tiffany___Co__Makers_Seven_Piece_"Chrysanthem100x100_c.jpg "A 19th century Seven Piece \"Chrysanthemum\" Pattern Sterling Silver Coffee & Tea Service, which was exhibited in the Tiffany & Co. booth at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago")
