Steve Wynn Brings $28 Million ‘Popeye’ Statue to Las Vegas

It must be nice to have the sort of money to buy a statue of Popeye for $28 million, though in fairness it was a 2,000 pound statue that was created by none other than Jeff Koons. He won the bidding for the piece, which is just one of three made by Koons at a recent auction.

Koons and Wynn are both fairly similar in one respect and that is that they are very large in life, especially in each of their respective fields.

Koons has been an extremely successful artist and is now known as one of the richest artists that are alive today. This is not the only piece he has sold for more than $10 million in his life time, in fact this is just one of many.

He does have his detractors though, with many claiming that he has a team of assistants that do a lot of the work on his pieces. This has led to him being labeled somewhat of a fraud in many corners, though it does not stop him from blatantly self-promoting himself.

Wynn himself has been incredibly successful, as you would expect from a man that can make such a purchase as this. He has built a number of empires in the casino industry, yet he too is seen as the sort to be polarized. He has a relationship with Donald Trump that always makes the headlines due to its love/hate aspect, Plus, he has even been known to actually steal tips from some of his casino employees.

The plan for Popeye is that he is going to be brought to the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas. It is believed that the sculpture will fit right in.

While you might think paying $28 million for a piece of artwork is excessive, then you may be disheartened to hear that this is nothing to what he has previously paid. He once owned a Picasso that was worth more, which he sold to Steve Chen for an astounding $155 million. It was the original “Le Reve”.

Anyhow, with Popeye now going to a new home, we wonder if an Olive will be following him in the near future, perhaps with a gift of a can of spinach to give to her sweetheart.