TEMA CELESTE MAGAZINE - 2001

Las Vegas and Art: Public Meets Private (Interview with Robert G. Goldstein, President of the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino)

The manners in which contemporary art galleries and museums function is based upon models that have not changed for decades. One would think with the entrepreneurial nature of the gallery business and the lack of institutional structure and layered bureaucracy inherent in the museum world, that galleries would be quick to respond to shifting cultural, political and economic times. Paradoxically, that has not been the case as none other than the Guggenheim has seized the initiative, first in Bilbao, and now even more radically, in of all places: Las Vegas. That innovation has occurred at the hands of the much-derided director of the Guggenheim, Thomas Krens and the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino. Vegas, much more so than Spain, has the potential to forever transform the underlying business of art-from nurturing new audiences to disseminating works of art to the public. Stay tuned.

Since the late forties the architecture of galleries, mimicking early museums of modern art, adopted the white cube paradigm for displaying works in order to confer value when there was little or no market to support such wares... Thus, for in excess of sixty years there has been a rigidity and orthodoxy in exhibitions that is mind-numbing in its sameness. If you step into contemporary art galleries from Africa to Asia you encounter the ubiquitous generic box, uniform hours of operation, and worse still, the exclusionary mind-set. And now the time for change is upon us; more revolutionary than a revolution started by the public sector is the launching of a hybrid marriage with private enterprise. Inevitably, galleries will catch on and be emboldened to follow in the footsteps of the Vegas experiment in reaching out to inaugurate alliances that for the first time seek to mobilize fresh visitors that would not ordinarily patronize galleries.


Viva Las Vegas

Las Vegas has tourism (prior to the World Trade Center attack, referred to herein as WTC) to the tune of 35 million visitors a year, and 130,000 hotel rooms en toto in which to house them. The 1.5 billion-dollar Venetian hotel, with over 3000 rooms, has 60,000 people a day passing through the lobby. Within the hotel alone are 400,000 square feet of retail space and three Jacob Javits Centers worth of convention space to boot (1.7 million square feet). Citywide, room rates can be had for as low as $29.99 at Circus Circus Hotel and probably approach a slot machine jackpot's worth for the high-end consumer. Vegas boasts more retail space in 3 miles than anywhere else does in the world. The commercial establishments in the Venetian hotel range from Canyon Ranch Spa and Prada to Banana Republic, and rival Madison Avenue for quality and choice. The city is hitting its stride with an onslaught of new gourmet eateries and nightlife activities and the re-development is not predicated on increasing gambling tables, but on entertainment and retail.


Elvis Meets Picasso

Steve Wynn, the legendary hotel developer of Las Vegas who began his forays into hotel ownership in deals involving Howard Hughes, built the Mirage Hotel and Casino in the eighties. The Mirage introduced the concepts of high end shopping and better dining to Las Vegas to skeptical critics that thought neither would fly, but take off they did. The Bellagio, which opened in 1998 at a cost of 1.6 billion dollars, added another high-end retail concept to the glitzy and gaudy world of Las Vegas: the single collector museum. Just a few years prior to the opening of the Bellagio, Wynn began an art collection of Impressionist masters, though not in the usual incremental fashion one might test the waters, rather, in true Vegas Style, we went in deep, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2000 the Mirage (which includes the Bellagio) was sold to MGM Grand Inc. for $6.4 billion out of which Wynn was said to receive between $500 and $800 million. With the sale of the hotel, Wynn acquired a right of first refusal on any offers made for works from the Bellagio collection, said to be worth $400 million, sometimes for prices less than that offered by another buyer. Of the $400 million art collection of the Bellagio, half was said to be owned by the hotel and the remainder owned by Wynn and leased back to the Bellagio at a cost of $5 million per year.

It was the forward and insightful thinking of Steve Wynn during his reign at the Bellagio Hotel that gave birth to the impetus that trickled-down to the Venetian in the form of the Guggenheim, and Hermitage Guggenheim. Wynn committed the then (and still a little now) sacrilegious act of bringing world class art to a hotel lobby gallery and restaurant (the infamous Picasso Restaurant, adorned with eleven authentic Picasso's to whet diner's visual appetites, and designed by Claude, Picasso's grandson). Surprisingly, entrance to the Bellagio gallery came with a $12 admission fee, and more surprisingly, lines formed to gain admittance packed with crowds composed of all colors and stripes waiting to get in to view Wynn's personal collection of masterpieces. Wynn's inimitable style of high profile purchases of big ticket items both privately and at Sotheby's and Christie's, raised eyebrows and created headlines as much for the prices he paid as for the creative way he found to finance it-the buying it and leasing it back to the publicly traded hotel. Auction purchases from 1999 included: a landscape by Georges Seurat, "Island of the Grande Jatte," for $35.2 million, a landscape by Berthe Morisot for $3.85 million, and it was speculated, more than one Picasso in the $40 million range. Bought privately by Wynn were a Tahitian scene by Paul Gauguin from a European collection for close to $35 million, and van Gogh's Peasant Girl with Straw Hat at a price of $47.5 million. As is fairly common with most mega collectors, Wynn was and is a frequent seller of high profile works at auction as well.

Those days have ended with the sale of the Bellagio and the collection within, but before temporarily closing due to the WTC disaster, the Bellagio began a program of temporary exhibits the first of which was from the public Phillips Collection in Washington DC., which staged: "Masterworks from the Phillips Collection at Bellagio" which was comprised of 25 paintings including: Van Gogh's "Entrance to the Public Gardens in Arles" and El Greco's "The Repentant St.Peter", and additionally paintings by Picasso, Degas, Manet, Cezanne and others. Next up was a show entitled The Private Collection of Steve Martin, which consisted of a partial loan of 28 pieces from the actor, comedian, and best selling author including works by Hockney, Picasso, Seurat, Lichtenstein, Bacon and Hopper. Among the more contemporary works were paintings by actor/comedian Martin Mull and three Fischl's among which included a portrait of Martin. The proceeds from the $12 admission fee benefited Steve Martin's charitable foundation and an acoustic guide that included Martin's commentary and anecdotes about the works accompanied the exhibit. Canceled due to the trade center attacks was the exhibit arranged by the Calder Foundation, entitled "Alexander Calder: The Art of Invention" showcasing works from 1926-1976.

Steve Wynn has struck again albeit in a scaled down version of his original ground breaking conception. Located in the former Desert Inn hotel lobby which currently houses Wynn Development, is yet another rendition of the original Bellagio museum. Named La Reve (The Dream) after a 1932 Picasso portrait of his mistress Marie Therese Walter that Wynn purchased for $42 million from Austrian banker Wolfgagn Flottl, who previously bought the painting for $48.4 million from the Ganz collection at Christie's in 1997. Additionally, there are signature works from Van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne, Degas, Gaugin, and Modigliani and to catch a glimpse it will cost Vegas residents $5 and out-of-towner's $10.


Passing the Baton

Now the Venetian has expanded the concept of the single collector gallery established by Wynn who opened the eyes of the city to the possibility of creating a mixed use commercial formula by combining art, culture, food and entertainment. The goal of Robert G. Goldstein, president of the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino was to make Wynn's original conception more diverse, and especially, more economically viable. Goldstein was born in Philadelphia, and lived in Las Vegas since 1975; he is an attorney by training with no formal art background whose specialty is real-estate development, with a knack for all things cultural. Goldstein's mother was a hobby painter and as a child they frequently visited museums. He collects an eclectic mix of contemporary work from street art in New Orleans to cutting edge emerging art from Paris and New York galleries. His is an intuitive approach characterized by criteria defined by "what I like". The ubiquitous don of Las Vegas aesthetics and cultural booster-ism Dave Hickey, plays a multi-faceted role in the shaping of Goldstein's burgeoning contemporary art knowledge. Tricky Hickey accomplishes a dual influence by way of Goldstein's wife's attending Hickey's class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Hickey's wife Libby Lumpkin (a consultant to Steve Wynn) pitching in with advice on the contemporary scene to the Goldsteins. Goldstein's dedication to the cause is evidenced by his reading Clement Greenberg every night to glean a better understanding of the underpinnings of modern and contemporary art thinking.


Goo Goo Guggenheim

Thomas Krens came into the picture when a commerce association envisioned opening a 100,000 square foot gallery in Vegas and brought in the Guggenheim director for feasibility advice. Goldstein was so impressed with the "razor sharp intellect, creativity and open-mindedness" of Krens that he approached him independently to feel out the possibility of the Gugg opening a franchise at the Venetian. The result was the founding of the 63,700 square foot Guggenheim Las Vegas, and 7,600 square foot Hermitage Guggenheim Museum, both designed by Rem Koolhaas, the latter in Cor-Ten steel, a la Richard Serra. Together, the stated cost of the construction of the two venues was 30 million dollars. The larger of the two Guggenheims is nicknamed the Big Box and is structured as a partnership between the hotel and the museum, and the Hermitage Gugg was built by the hotel but based on a strict tenancy between the museum and the Venetian. The hours of the museums are 9am to 11pm; private galleries should take heed. Together the museums are envisioned as growing the spectrum of activities in the hotel and thereby increasing various appetites (for food and drink, shopping and gambling) by adding hubs for culture. Fantastically, rooms and other retail ventures earn more than gambling, which contradicts the notion of gambling dollars fueling the neon fire. So much for the common perception of Vegas as a place where fat cats get free booze and gratis suites that could accommodate football teams, and go on to drop millions in gambling losses at baccarat.

As set forth by Goldstein, there will be "no rules" governing the possibilities of what may transpire at the Venetian Guggenheims. Though they are seeking for the projects to be commercially viable, at $15 dollars a pop for admission to each museum, the extremely prominent spaces at the entrance to the hotel could have been put to better economic use by high-end retail. Goldstein states that the hotel won't get rich from the admissions to the Guggenheim, but it could have a phenomenal and mutually beneficial spillover effect. When queried as to whether the Venetian would contemplate art projects outside the (big) box he stated that they are considering fetching Koons' giant flower puppy for an appearance-the perfect kitsch emblem for the emblematically kitsch city.

The opening festivities included a sit down dinner for 800 people (the scale of everything in Vegas seems larger than life); but, the scope of the opening events were scaled back inasmuch as a giant pool party was canceled due to the WTC attack. Initially after the disaster, there was a setback of 50 - 70 % reduction in attendance at the hotel, but that has come back at the time of this writing to levels of 40 - 50% of what is normal for late fall. On an optimistic note, the Venetian's 3000+ rooms were sold out for the latter week and a half of October. Attendance for the two museums is projected at 5000 people per day for each space. Says Goldstein surveying the completed and now open for business museums: "Krens delivers on his promise."


Vegas-Next Generation

Art is a business and is product in reality not very different from any other in a sense, and it is this fresh, outsiders perspective that is so empowering about the marriage of hotel and museum in Vegas. The art world finds it anathema to breathe words of commerce combined with art, but hypocritically is meshed with money like worms under a rock. Though the quality is to date questionable, there are some galleries in Vegas, but Goldstein believes it is only a matter of time before high caliber commercial galleries take advantage of the new momentum for viewing art and drop stakes in Vegas. There is already a movie festival slated for Vegas and an art fair of some sort is not ruled out for the near future. Goldstein is amazed that the private sector hasn't seized the opportunity in New York or other major city to do some mixed-use venture of the caliber of the Vegas Gugg. In expanding the horizons of Vegas, the audiences at the Venetian Guggenheims are not expected to be art buyers per se, but just curious tourists who will walk away vastly enriched from an experience they might otherwise never attain. And, from the seeds sowed at the Venetian Guggenheims, who knows what may emerge next from the alchemy.