Picasso'spaintingtitled "Le Reve"(File Photo)

Photo Gallery>>>BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A millionaire Las Vegas casino developer and art collector with an eye disease turned a 139 million U.S. dollarpaintinginto a nightmare recently when he accidentally poked a hole in a famous work of art by Picasso titled "Le Reve" (The Dream).

Steve Wynn had just finalized a sale to another collector when he hit the painting with his elbow while showing "Le Reve" to friends in his Las Vegas office two weeks ago.

Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron, who witnessed and related the incident in her blog on the Huffington Post website said Wynn had raised his hand to show the group something about Picasso's 1932 portrait of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter.

“At that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There was a terrible noise,” Ephron wrote, noting that Wynn has retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that damages peripheral vision.

“Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Oh s---,’ he said. 'Look what I've done. Thank goodness it was me.'"

Wynn’s office on Tuesday confirmed the story, an account of which also appeared in this week's The New Yorker. Both accounts said Wynn had decided to release the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting himself. Enditem

(Agencies)