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There was a time when the Las Vegas version of fine art ranged from
paintings of dogs playing poker to Elvis on velvet or neon-bathed Vegas
Vic beckoning visitors to his crowded casino in downtown's Glitter
Gulch.
Not any more.
Las Vegas' casino chiefs are betting big bucks
Vegas visitors are ready for a little culture with their craps, some
Picasso with their poker.
If there is such a thing as a cultural
revolution in a place dubbed Sin City, casino magnate Steve Wynn would
have to be recognized as the general who led the charge.
Wynn shelled out a staggering $300 million for
fine art in 1998 as he prepared to open his $1.6 billion Bellagio
resort, convinced the Vegas crowd would leave the tables long enough to
soak up the works of masters such as Picasso, Monet and Renoir.
Wynn's gamble surprised the pundits, with
crowds flocking to the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art to view works of the
masters in the least likely of towns.
There was some question as to whether this
pricey flirtation with fine art would fizzle when billionaire Kirk
Kerkorian's MGM Grand, Inc. bought out Bellagio's parent Mirage Resorts,
Inc. earlier this year. MGM announced it would sell off the masterpieces
to retire Mirage debt, and Wynn bought many of the works personally.
Wynn, who since bought the Desert Inn and plans
a new megaresort complex on the Strip, has declined to discuss the
numbers, as has MGM.
While the new company, MGM-MIRAGE, sold off the
expensive artwork, it sent a signal it would stay the course set by
Wynn, inking a deal with The Phillips Collection of Washington, D.C. to
showcase a special exhibit of modern masterworks. Comprised of 26 major
paintings and sculptures, the Bellagio exhibit includes works by artists
such as van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, Manet, Cezanne and others.
"Increasingly sophisticated audiences with
a variety of needs and interests have created a market for culturally
rich experiences in Las Vegas," said Robert Baldwin, president and
CEO of Bellagio.
Works from The Phillips Collection will be on
exhibit at Bellagio through March 4, 2001. Baldwin said it would be the
first in a series of "rotating exhibitions from the world's
greatest art collections."
Gallery Director Kathy Clewell said Bellagio
"has created a destination for the cultural traveler where
previously there was no market."
"We were overwhelmed with the response to
the initial gallery," Clewell told Dateline Las Vegas. "And we
have visitors from all over the world who are delighted to find fine art
of this quality in Las Vegas. At the same time, we are introducing fine
art to many of our visitors who are not connoisseurs, but are very
comfortable coming into the gallery in this environment."
Currently, the gallery draws some 1,000
visitors daily on weekends.
If fine art fanciers thought the Bellagio
gallery was a big deal, they had to be amazed by a coup pulled off in
late October by entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson, owner of the $1.5 billion
Venetian resort.
Adelson, who made a fortune developing the
giant Comdex computer shows and spent a healthy chunk of it on his posh
3,036-room Venice-themed hotel-casino, announced an alliance between his
Venetian, New York's prestigious Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the
State Hermitage Museum in
St. Petersburg, Russia.
Wynn, who was bought out in the MGM-MIRAGE
deal, was on hand for the announcement of the
Venetian-Guggenheim-Hermitage pact.
Wynn's presence wasn't lost on Thomas Krens,
director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
"The concept of Guggenheim in Las Vegas
wouldn't be possible without Steve Wynn," Krens said.
Adelson said the two new projects at his resort
will feature art "found nowhere else except the greatest museums in
the world -- the Guggenheim and the Hermitage."
And he credited Wynn for the city's unique
artistic transformation.
"I thank Steve Wynn for establishing the
first step into the world of art in Las Vegas," Adelson said.
"He never looked back. Today we're looking forward because he lit a
spark, and we're throwing fuel on the fire."
Wynn was enthusiastic about the latest
development.
"Isn't this the greatest," he said,
standing outside the Venetian after a press conference. "Did you
ever think you'd see anything like this in Las Vegas?"
Dr. Mikhail Shwydkoi, minister of culture of
the Russian Federation, said the Russian government and President
Vladimir Putin "strongly support this important development."
"I know highbrow critics will criticize
me, having the Hermitage in the capital of gambling," Shwydkoi
said.
But, art is important for the soul of people
coming to Las Vegas, and art is "the key to the soul of Russian
culture," Shwydkoi said.
The Venetian project will include a 63,700-foot
building to be named the Guggenheim Las Vegas, scheduled to open next
summer. It will be designed as a fine art exhibition space, not as a
museum with a permanent collection.
Also planned is a new 7,660-foot structure off
the hotel lobby called the Hermitage-Guggenheim Museum, which will open
next spring with works from the Hermitage and Guggenheim collections.
Dr. Mikhail Piotrovski, director of the State
Hermitage Museum, called the tie with Las Vegas "a wonderful new
step" in the cooperation between the two countries. He said the
pact was "helping change the face of Las Vegas."
"Never did I think when I first came here
in 1965 that we would someday see fine art here the quality found in the
Guggenheim and Hermitage," Adelson said. |
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