No tax breaks for Wynn’s big art collection

Brendan Riley

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998 | 8:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - There's no Nevada tax break in the cards for casino mogul Steve Wynn if he insists on money to see his Monets - or any other rare paintings he'll display at his new Bellagio resort.

That was the 5-3 decision Tuesday of the state Tax Commission despite Wynn's protest he was up against an unwarranted, broad-brush attitude of "don't let the rich guy get away with something."

Wynn singled out state Sen. Joe Neal as his chief antagonist, criticizing the lawmaker for false and "shameful" comments about the casino executive's motives in establishing his own Louvre in Las Vegas, filled with paintings worth $300 million.

Neal, D-North Las Vegas, told the commission that the idea of putting the big art collection on display at the Bellagio, opening on the Las Vegas Strip Oct. 15, was "to lure high-rollers to this establishment."

Wynn countered that the exhibit will be open to anyone who pays a $10 entry fee, adding, "If this was a high roller thing, I could never show it to anyone but them."

Wynn also said remarks that sales-use and personal property tax exemptions on the art could save him up to $17 million in the first year are wrong, and at the most he'd save $1.5 million.

After the meeting, Wynn said the commission's decision was "no big thing to us." Asked if he'd continue to seek the break, he added, "I have no more energy for this."

But Wynn also said he could go to the 1999 Legislature to amend the tax break law that he pushed through the 1997 session.

While that maneuver might finally net him the tax break without having to give the free public access, Wynn also said he'd have to face the unwelcome prospect of another battle with Neal.

The Tax Commission's vote affirmed an earlier decision to require free public access 20 hours a week, 35 weeks a year, in order for any art gallery to qualify for the tax breaks. The rule will be in effect for one year.

Tax Commission Chairwoman Barbara Smith-Campbell said the requirement could be easily met by having two free days and then charging entry fees on the other five.

Panel member Robert Robinson pressed for free entry for any Nevadans. He said most of the people showing up at Wynn's gallery would be tourists.

But his proposal was rejected and he wound up voting against the winning motion to give the tax breaks only to galleries that meet the free-entry minimum.

Wynn, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, publicly started his art-buying binge in November 1996 with the $2.9 million purchase of Manet's "Portrait de Mademoiselle Suzette Lemaire, de profil."

Since then, he or his Mirage Resources Inc. have bought Cezanne's "Portrait of a Woman," Monet's "Water-Lily Pond with Bridge," Van Gogh's "Woman in a Blue Dress," and Degas' "Dancer Taking Her Bow."

He also has a Gauguin Tahitian scene, a Renoir of a girl and her mother by a riverbank, and works by Matisse, Picasso, Giacometti, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and other major artists.