Rumors have Wynn interested in acquiring Sotheby’s

Friday, March 24, 2000 | 11:45 a.m.

A New York Post gossip columnist reported that Mirage Resorts Inc. Chairman Steve Wynn may be interested in acquiring Sotheby's, the world-famous auction house.

The Post's Neal Travis, who writes a regular gossip column for the newspaper, said in Thursday's edition that Wynn would use profits from the $5.4 billion sale of Mirage to MGM Grand Inc. to acquire Sotheby's.

"The auction world is so awhirl with rumors now that I might as well offer another," Travis' column says.

"I hear that Steve Wynn, flush with the $5 billion (MGM Grand investor) Kirk Kerkorian is paying for his casino empire, could be looking at buying the embattled Sotheby's. Steve, one of the world's major collectors of fine art, gets to keep all his masterpieces in the deal with Kirk. If he owned Sotheby's and wanted to have a garage sale, he wouldn't have to charge himself a commission."

A Mirage spokesman dismissed the report.

"The only thing I can tell you is that Steve Wynn will be rumored to be buying just about anything," Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said today.

"Be patient and let him announce what he plans to do," he said. "Yesterday, I received a phone call from a gossip columnist who asked if he was buying a hotel chain in California. You'll probably hear a lot of these kinds of things."