Guggenheim Las Vegas Planned
L A S V E G A S, July 15, 2000 -- The Guggenheim Museum and slot machines aren’tusually mentioned together, but a potential deal to bring aGuggenheim branch to this gambling mecca might inject somerefinement into a city defined by neon signs and cheap buffets.
The Venetian hotel-casino is talking to the museum aboutcreating the new Guggenheim outpost on a parcel adjacent to theresort’s parking garage.
“I think Las Vegas could use a little culture,” MarvinRoffman, a gambling analyst for Roffman Miller Associates, saidFriday.
The 35,000-square-foot building on the Strip would serve as avenue for shows from the New York-based museum, and would bedesigned by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the Los Angeles Times andThe Wall Street Journal reported Friday. It also would be the first significant collaboration betweensuch an institution and a hotel-casino in the United States.
Frank Gehry May Design
Venetian and museum officials offered few details on thetalks. A Guggenheim spokesman said the museum would not comment.
“We are in discussions with the Guggenheim and notablearchitects, but nothing is final at this stage,” Venetianspokesman Kurt Ouchida said. “The final design is still underdevelopment.”
As early as next year, the Guggenheim plans to lend its popular“The Art of the Motorcycle” show to the Venetian, the newspapersreported. Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry has been asked todesign the exhibit.
The Times also reported Gehry and Guggenheim director ThomasKrens have been in talks with Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson toexpand the Guggenheim’s presence at the $1.5 billion hotel-casinowhen the resort expands.
Gallery Hopping on the Strip The Guggenheim might have to compete with the PhillipsCollection of Washington, D.C., which is negotiating with MGMMirage to have an exhibit at the Bellagio hotel-casino.
But whether tourists really want to view a Picasso in betweenplaying slot machines and blackjack remains to be seen.
When a fine art gallery opened at the glitzy Bellagio resort in1998, some were unsure how it would mix in a city with rollercoasters and showgirls. But Las Vegas has been attracting moreupscale travelers, especially as the city increasingly plays hostto more business conventions.
“The only reason why it’s happening is because it was workingat Bellagio,” Roffman said. “There’s a lot of people that havenever seen a Picasso.”
Vegas Makeover Bellagio founder Steve Wynn took half of his $400 million artcollection with him when he left Mirage Resorts Inc.after MGM Grand Inc. acquired it and formed MGM Mirage earlier this year. Otherpieces were sold to various collectors.
Wynn has since acquired the Desert Inn hotel-casino and plans todemolish it to build a new property, complete with his own artgallery.
The exhibit would tentatively be called “Masterworks from thePhillips Collection.” It would feature 20 to 30 pieces by severalartists, including Picasso, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and ClaudeMonet, said Lynn Rossotti, spokeswoman for the Phillips Collection.It could open later this year.
The deal should be completed in the next couple of weeks.
“This fits in with what Las Vegas has to be in the future,”said Bill Thompson, a University of Nevada professor ofpublic administration and a gambling expert. “If we don’t do thiswe’re in the same league with the Indian casinos and the riverboats. We should aspire to be in our league.”