It’s good to be the former Mrs. Steve Wynn. Elaine Wynn, co-founder of the Wynn Casino empire and an art lover with very deep pockets, bought Francis Bacon’s triptych “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” for 2.4 million at a Christie’s auction in November, the New York Times reported.
For months, the art world wondered who would walk away with the painting, which Christie’s originally thought would bring about $85 million. Four other bidders tried to buy the triptych, the Times reported, but were handily outbid by Wynn, whose estimated net worth is $1.9 billion, according to a 2013 report in Forbes.
Over the years the Wynns, who divorced in 2010, have shared their love of art with the casino-going public, opening galleries in some of their gaming halls and displaying works by Degas, van Gogh and Matisse.
The best-known work in the Wynn collection was “Le Rêve,” a 1932 Picasso; Wynn even named a casino after it. Last March, Steve Wynn sold the Picasso to billionaire Steven A. Cohen, hedge fund manager and CEO of SAC Capital. Asking price: a cool $155 million.
