A Paint Roller Tore a $20 Million Hole in a Picasso Painting Headed to Christie’s. Now, the Insurance Company Is Suing the Contractor to Pay for It

Two years ago, casino mogul and art collector Steve Wynn
withdrew a Pablo Picasso canvas on
the eve of an auction at Christie’s New York after the painting was
damaged, knocking a reported $20 million of the work’s value. Now,
the insurance company that reimbursed Christie’s after the auction
house paid Wynn is suing the contractor it blames for the costly
accident that gashed a hole in the masterpiece.

The lawsuit, filed by Steadfast Insurance Co., is seeking $18.4
million in damages, plus legal fees, from T.F. Nugent, a family-run commercial
painting business, reports Bloomberg.

The painting, Le
Marin, was one of several high-profile
works Wynn put up for sale in May 2018, shortly before
announcing he would be setting up shop as an art
dealer through a business dubbed Sierra Fine Art LLC. The
1943 self-portrait carried a third-party guarantee, and was
expected to sell for at least $70 million. Then, as the auction
house prepared to exhibit the work ahead of the sale, disaster struck.

An employee of T.F. Nugent, which had been hired to paint
Christie’s galleries ahead of the exhibition, left an extension rod
for a paint roller leaning up against one of the walls. According
to the complaint, the rod wasn’t secured, and slipped and fell,
crashing into Le Marin, which was resting on foam
pads against the wall in preparation for installation. The rod tore
a four-and-a-half-inch hole in the canvas.

Following the incident, Christie’s had the work restored,
spending $487,625 to close the gaping hole and the surrounding
damage, a total area of seven inches long and two inches wide.

Steadfast hired two art experts to appraise the restored work
and assess how much the accident had impacted its value. The
lawsuit contends that the appraisers found that the painting had
previously been worth up to $100 million, but that the accident had
lowered its worth by 20 percent, or $20 million, “given the
extent of the physical damage to the Le Marin, and the accompanying
reputational damage.”

Based on that figure, Christie’s negotiated a settlement with
Wynn’s company, Sierra Fine Art, paying out $18.74
million—money that was reimbursed by Steadfast, the auction house’s
insurance company.

Steadfast’s lawsuit argues that “Le Marin was damaged
due to the negligent and/or careless acts” on the part of T.F.
Nugent, and that the painting company broke its oral contract with
Christie’s by not fulfilling its “duty to act with reasonable care
with respect to the performance of their duties to paint Christie’s
galleries.” The insurance company contends that T.F. Nugent should
reimburse it for the $18.74 expense incurred as a result of the
painting company’s “negligence.”

Wynn, of course, once famously damaged a
Picasso masterpiece in his collection, the 1932
portrait Le Rêve, by accidentally putting his elbow
through it back in 2006. Luckily, the damage was repairable, and
Wynn sold it to hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen for $155 million in 2013. (He did
sue his insurance
company first.)

The post A Paint Roller Tore a $20 Million Hole in a Picasso
Painting Headed to Christie’s. Now, the Insurance Company Is Suing
the Contractor to Pay for It appeared first on artnet
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