REUTERS/Jim Young
Bill Gross.
- Wall Street titan Bill Gross has apparently been outsmarted by his ex-wife.
- Sue Gross, who was married to Bill Gross for 31 years, managed to swap one of the couple's jointly owned Picasso paintings with a fake that she had created.
- Sue Gross was awarded the painting, which hung in their home in Laguna Beach, in the divorce settlement, but admitted to taking it several months before.
- It is now up for auction at Sotheby's with an estimate of $25-35 million.
Bill Gross' wife is much savvier than her ex-husband might have realized.
According to the New York Post, Sue Gross, who filed for divorce at the end of 2016 after 31 years of marriage, fooled her ex-husband into thinking he was sleeping in the presence of a Picasso painting for several months after she swapped the priceless piece of art for a fake she had created herself.
The painting, which is a 1932 Picasso entitled "Le Repos," is coming up for auction at Sotheby's New York on Monday, with an estimate of $25-35 million.
Sotheby's
Pablo Picasso's Le Repos.
The painting in question was jointly owned by the couple but was awarded to Sue Gross during the divorce settlement in August 2017. When Bill Gross came to arrange for it to be shipped to his ex-wife's home, she informed him that that wouldn't be necessary.
During a testimony several months later, she admitted to taking the painting but claimed that Bill had told her to "take all the furniture and art that you'd like," the Post reported.
"Well, you didn't take it and leave an empty spot on the wall, though, did you?" Bill Gross' lawyers asked.
"You replaced it with a fake?" they added.
Sue Gross reportedly removed the original painting and replaced it with a replica that she had created herself. According to the Post, she swiped a seven-foot, 300-pound rabbit sculpture as well.
Bill Gross is worth a reported $2.5 billion and is known as a legendary investor on Wall Street.
