Following several weeks of turbulence for Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the institution announced that it has been promised donations that will raise its endowment past $60 million, the highest levels in its 34-year history.  The news comes after several weeks in which the museum was forced to consider a potential merger with LACMA to keep its doors open.  “The financial support we have already raised demonstrates the commitment of the board to ensuring that MOCA remains a world-class independent contemporary art museum, and we call on others to join in this campaign,” says MOCA Board President Jeffrey Soros. (more…)

Pablo Picasso, Le Rêve (1932)

Hedge fund manager and notable collector Steven A. Cohen, who has just settled two insider-trading lawsuits with the government, has just purchased Picasso’s Le Rêve for $155 Million.  The exchange, between Cohen and Las Vegas Hotel Mogul Steve Wynn, is estimated to be the largest price ever paid for a work of art by an American collector. The sale of Le Rêve, Picasso’s 1932 portrait of a sleeping woman, had previously been discussed between Wynn and Cohen, particularly in 2006, when the sale was canceled after Wynn accidentally thrust his elbow through the piece, causing a 6-inch tear.  “Steve has wanted that painting for a long time. The timing of the sale is just a coincidence.”  Said an unnamed source.

Steven A Cohen, via Patrick McMullan

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