Daily Beast on Wynn's Art

Sometimes it takes a while to find the right outlet for a story. This is one of those times. Today, finally, I've written up the tale of Steve Wynn's describing his purchase of that $33 million Rembrandt in December for The Daily Beast. Podcast listeners would have heard it already, of course.

It was a very interesting exercise in fact-checking Wynn. Usually, he tells tales about people saying stuff and it sounds like a great yarn but there's no real way on the fly to ring up Steven Spielberg or Waylon Jennings to review some innocuous anecdote. The best you can say is that if they don't complain after the fact, it's probably true. But then again, it's Wynn and correcting the media record can be a challenge so I suspect some of his pals just let it go.

This time, though, I did call up everyone involved. And, while I didn't reach all of them, those I did speak to confirmed Wynn's version of events right down to verbatim quotes.

If you missed the full podcast, you can also now download just the 17-minute sequence from that March conversation.

Take a WILD guess

Last week, I went over to the Bellagio to check out a little media shindig held for Richard MacDonald, a famed figurative sculptor who has a new store immediately outside the "O" Theater. The connection is that in some cases, MacDonald has used Cirque gymnasts in his work.

Anyhow, the work is certainly impressive and worth browsing. But it's also quite expensive. So I figured I'd throw it out there for y'all to take a stab at this. How much you think this piece retail for? It is an image of Rudolf Nureyev, proably about 3 feet tall.


Anyone?

That Big Thing I've Been Hinting At...

The trouble with hyping something is that heightened expectations are so easy to disappoint. And the importance of this story may not be readily apparent to everyone. You might recall earlier this week I beat up on a snooty critic who felt himself clever reciting the hackneyed old view of Vegas as, in his words, "a steroidal temple of tackiness."

Well, in the same pages as that phrase appeared, I'm breaking on Saturday an exclusive in The New York Times about a $40 million public art program at MGM Mirage's CityCenter. You can read all about it here.

Why is this such a big deal?

To start with, the artists involved are the Elvises (Elvi?) of their worlds. None is more amazing than Maya Lin, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial sculptress. She's creating a $3 million, 130-foot cast-silver representation of the Colorado River. Some pieces are being created, others are being acquired. Among the artists is Jenny Holzer, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, Henry Moore, Richard Long and Nancy Rubins.

Don't worry; I wasn't that familiar with all of them either before I caught wind of this story. That's why I grabbed some images of what some of the pieces will look like.

First, here's the Henry Moore piece, which MGM Mirage paid $7 million for:


This here is the Claes Oldenburg piece, called "Typewriter Eraser X"...


The wackiest of the pieces may be the Nancy Rubins piece. She takes boats and stuff and turns them into a gargantuan tree, and this one will be 85-by-65-feet big. The images below show roughly where it'll be and what it looks like, which provides if nothing else a pretty cool new visual perspective on CityCenter. The Times has a slideshow, but these weren't included:


But the big deal here is that this plan has the potential to kick off an arts arms race in Las Vegas that really could turn the town into a destination for cultural tourists. Sure, we've had small Strip museums -- Bellagio and Venetian and, before he realized Rolexes provide better profits, Wynn Las Vegas -- but those are one aspect.

This collection -- along with the impressive architects involved with CityCenter -- singlehandedly changed the view of Las Vegas for art critic Joan Altabe, who I had quoted in a piece in the Times in 2002 railing against putting great art in a city where everything is so fake. How, she wondered, would people even know they were looking at the real thing with all the reproductions of famous cities and frescos around them?

In a comment that got cut from the Times piece because of space constraints, she said: “This is going to put Vegas on the map in a totally different way. Someone with an art mind is working here. I’m dazzled by this. It’s a step away from what I thought was a failing idea.”

You can hear a longer conversation with the wonderful Maya Lin next week on "The Strip Podcast." And I guess that's one other reason I'm so jazzed; every time Vegas goes in a new and unexpected direction, it provides me with an opportunity to learn something new from nothing less than the biggest names in their fields.

Drunk Cats, Sugar Sculptures and Taxes

So sorry to have been off blog duty the past day or so, but it's rough getting back to normal after all that hullabaloo. Plus, I haven't done my taxes yet and that's fast approaching, so right now as I type I am psyching myself up to look at my records and figure out what I need to give my accountant.

Which is as good a time as any to share this, a precious 12-second video of "Petcast" guest host Molly Ball's cat tasting Scotch. (And speaking of "The Petcast," the latest episode, in which Molly and Emily debate the ethics of using sea animals in counterterrorism efforts, is online.)

Besides, that, I thought this was pretty cool -- a mammoth sugar sculpture display recently unveiled in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Las Vegas. What's more, it's just the first of what is to become a seasonal display. Finally, a reason to go all the way out to Lake Las Vegas!

To crib from the press release: "Executive Pastry Chef Chris Hanmer designed and created two identical displays entitled, “An Unexpected Oasis” that are showcased in two separate wood and glass cases located in the hotel’s front lobby. Each showcases 45 orange and blue pieces created from 150 pounds of sugar. The entire project took Chef Hanmer more than 100 hours to craft by hand, using food coloring for the orange and blue hues. Hanmer began planning this project in October 2006, completing the sugar display creations in February. “When I lived in Washington, D.C., I often visited the Smithsonian Institute. There I discovered a true appreciation of modern art which became my inspiration for developing these pieces. Because I am a chef, it was the ideal way to combine my two passions – cooking and modern art,” says Hanmer.

Sounds like someone ELSE procrastinates instead of doing his taxes...