Wynn was showing Picasso’s Le Reve (The Dream) to his friends shortly after finalising its sale to Steven Cohen, a hedge fund investor, for $139 million. According to Denise Randazzo, his spokesman, Wynn struck the masterpiece with his elbow while gesticulating as he spoke. Wynn apparently suffers from an eye condition that affects peripheral vision.

“Oh shit! Look what I’ve done,” exclaimed Wynn when he saw the coin-sized hole his elbow had left in the canvas, according to eyewitness Nora Ephron. The sale of the painting, a portrait of Picasso’s mistress Marie-Therese Walter, would have broken the record for a painting, set by Ronald Lauder, who paid $135 million for Gustav Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer” in July of this year.

Wynn will now keep and restore the painting.