Question of the Day - 04 September 2022

The inspiration for Bellagio, overall, was a picturesque town on Lake Como in Italy, which Steve Wynn and his then-wife Elaine happened upon while vacationing with their friends Paul and Anne Anka.

Bellagio was, at the time it opened in 1998, the most expensive hotel ever built. No expense was spared in the lavish project and Wynn, always keen to outdo his own last endeavor, wanted something in the lobby to rival the spectacular salt-water aquarium showcased behind the check-in desk at the Mirage.

As long-time collectors of the art of master glass-blower Dale Chihuly, the Wynns commissioned the world-renowned artist to create his single largest work to date.

The result was the 2,100-square-foot installation that fills the ceiling of Bellagio’s lobby. It's called “Fiori di Como” (“Flowers of Como”), Chihuly’s interpretation of Italian flowers in the spring.  

At 70 by 30 by 12 feet, the sculpture consists of 2,000 hand-blown glass blossoms that weigh about 40,000 pounds in total. They’re supported by a 10,000-pound steel armature. The whole work cost in the neighborhood of $10 million and required the services of more than 100 artisans, including glassblowers, architects, engineers, shippers, installers, and fabricators over a nearly two-year period to complete.

Dale Chihuly will turn 82 in a couple of weeks. He comes from and still lives in Washington state, where he was born in 1941. In a bad car accident in England in the '70s, he went through the windshield and lost an eye; he wears an eye patch. His art appears in more than 400 permanent collections worldwide, from the U.S. and Canada to China, Israel, and Australia.