Let’s all get rich and destroy Picasso paintings
I found this story quite amusing. I really shouldn’t, since I quite like Picasso, but it’s funny all the same. Basically a rich art collector in America had just closed the deal on a painting called Le Rêve, a depiction of the artist’s mistress, Marie-Therese Walter. He had sold this for $139 million (that’s about £75 million, in real money).
Anyway, he was showing it off to friends when he soundly put his elbow straight through the painting. He made a hole in a Picasso original. A hole. In a picasso. His first words, apparently, were, “Oh shit, look what I’ve done.”
Oh my goodness, I would wet myself. I would probably wet myself for a whole week — just continous incontinence for seven days and seven nights. Still, it’s a hilarious story, no? The event was witnessed by a bunch of people including Nora Ephron, who were all sworn to secrecy. Sadly, not everyone there honoured the oath, and before long there was a piece about it in the New Yorker.
There are two things that appeal to me about Nora Ephron’s blog post about the incident. First is the fact that she points out that half of Marie’s head has been painted to resemble a penis. I think that’s great. What a wonderful gesture of romantic love. If I was Picasso’s mistress, I’d say upon viewing it, “Oh, darling, you’ve made half my head into a penis, how sweet of you! What a lovely way to be recorded for the ages. I’m going to love you forever, just like the way that penis on the side of my face is going to follow people around the room forever. God bless you, you dear, sweet man.”
The second thing I like is Ephron’s obvious mirth (which verges on unrestrained joy) at being able to talk about it. She finishes her post with the words
Now, in today’s New Yorker, there’s a very charming piece about the incident, and as far as I’m concerned I am entirely released from my vow of silence on the matter.
The third thing I like, and I didn’t include this in my original list of things I liked (look upon it as a nice surprise) was the fact that her initials spell “nephron”, which is one of the most fascinating structures in the human body. (See Wikipedia.)
Her post is actually quite hilarious. Check it out: Nora Ephron: My Weekend in Vegas.
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The guy has an eye disease that affects his peripheral vision as well.
For some reason (probably an “I’m going to hell” reason), that just made it funnier.
what soft cheese and wine goes best with the destruction of a picasso?
I don’t know, probably cheese with holes in it. They have cheese with holes in in that Switzerland, don’t they? That’s pretty soft. Soft-ish, anyway.
Also: wine with holes in it. I don’t know how you’d get the holes in, maybe freeze the wine, drill holes in it and then serve it as ice-lollies?
Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea. I’m going to try it. Someday.
winelollies. that’s so brittish! a nice light dry white wine would be suitable i am sure.
Wine-lollies, British? How so?!
Wine all tastes like anti-freeze to me anyway. Does it even freeze? Actually yes it does, we froze some at work by accident. The cork popped out and the wine went all over the ice cream bowls. It was pretty funny.