The head of the hedge fund bought a picture of Picasso for a record 155 million dollars

NEW YORK. Hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen bought the famous Picasso painting for a record price of $ 155 million.

Pablo Picasso - Sleep

Cohen, who runs his own hedge fund with assets of $ 15 billion, acquired Le Reve (Dream), written in 1932, from Steve Wynn, the owner of a large gambling business. There is still no exact data on the deal, the information was published in the New York Post with reference to an unnamed source.

Thus, "Le Reve" became the most expensive Picasso painting in history, as well as the most expensive piece of art ever sold in the United States.

Prerequisites for the deal appeared back in 2006, when Wynn first agreed to sell the painting to Cohen. Then the deal, according to media reports, was supposed to be 139 million dollars. But by a strange coincidence, immediately after the agreement between the two collectors was reached, Wynne ruined the masterpiece by perforating the upper left corner of the canvas. For a long time, restorers worked on the painting, and now it still got to Cohen.

The picture shows the lover of Pablo Picasso, Marie-Teresa Walter. The cost of the artist’s paintings painted during this period is incredibly high. In 2010, one of Walter’s images was sold at Christie’s for $ 106.4 million.

The sale of the painting came in the wake of an ongoing multi-year federal investigation into insider trading of nine former SAC Capital employees owned by Stephen Cohen. Earlier this month, SAC Capital agreed to pay a record $ 616 million in fine to settle two lawsuits.

Cohen’s spokeswoman and Steve Wynn spokeswoman declined to comment on the deal.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru