A stone’s throw from the bustle and bling of the Las Vegas Strip, a sleek but understated building rises from the desert – a structure that, while elegant, the casual observer would not likely guess contains a remarkable private art collection. Once inside, you’re left to wonder, is this an art gallery or a private home? In short, it’s both. It’s actually the home of Todd-Avery Lenahan, president and COO of Wynn Design and Development, the in-house creative studio for gaming and hospitality corporation Wynn Resorts, and his husband John Gorsuch. The collection is so varied that pieces from antiquity coexist with unapologetically contemporary objects. It is not uncommon, for instance, to see, on the same wall, an abstract painting by Joan Miró and an oil portrait by Thomas Phillips.
In a reception room, club chairs by Quatrain for Dessin Fournir sit around Lucite coffee tables from Allan Knight, on which sit Grand Tour cork models by Dieter Cöllen, including several after those in the Sir John Soane museum, for whom Cöllen carried out restoration work. On the floor is a silk rug by Patterson Flynn. Above the fireplace hangs La Memoire by Theodoor Verschaeren, while in front of it is a copper and gilt bronze candelabra by Claude Lalanne. On the easel is a French School painting, traditionally identified as The Sleeping Hector
Tour this art-rich Las Vegas house
This is not to imply incoherence. Lenahan strives to achieve a balance; the diverse art in his home is curated as if the works are in conversation. ‘I joke with my husband all the time. It’s time to let them start their party when we turn out the lights at night. I feel like these [works] are all having a dialogue with one another. It’s fun for me to imagine that,’ he says. ‘I look for pieces that define how an artist at a certain point in time was capturing what they considered the ultimate expression of either male or female beauty.’
The Sacrifice of Isaac, by Alessandro Gherardini, sits on a gilded wallcovering by Fromental, alongside a gilt textile work by Olga de Amaral
On the Empire-style demilune games table is Le Métaphore (Canard-Bateau) by François-Xavier Lalanne, while on the wall behind are paintings by Anthonie de Lorme and Augustus Wall Callcott
The home’s design intentionally enables this interplay of mediums, periods and themes. The architect, the Las Vegas-based Daniel Joseph Chenin, describes the dwelling as ‘a quiet frame for art’ and ‘a study in discipline and clarity… that resists the desert’s appetite for spectacle and instead unfolds as a sequence of intimate, curated spaces’. Those spaces seem to perfectly facilitate the amalgam of heritage and modernity, with Chenin’s architectural rigour and cinematic approach aligning seamlessly with Lenahan’s mastery of atmosphere, hospitality and storytelling.
‘I look for pieces that define how an artist at a certain point in time was capturing what they considered the ultimate expression of either male or female beauty’
Todd-Avery Lenahan
In the hallway to the bedroom, Second Girl Sitting on Bench, by Lynn Chadwick, is perched between Allegory of the Arts by Jan van der Straet and Steven Meisel’s Untitled II, from Four Days in LA: The Versace Pictures, which was once owned by Elton John
Auguste Rodin’s Vase of the Titans, created for sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, sits on a Biedermeier table from New York antiques gallery Iliad, while in the background is a Roman Empire marble bust. The space is lit by a bronze and rock crystal chandelier by Christopher Boots and The Urban Electric Co wall sconces
At the main entrance, you are greeted by Auguste Rodin’s Vase of the Titans, an early piece that the artist created while working with French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. This was one of Rodin’s first human figures moulded by hand and then cast in terracotta. Looking closely at the cast, one can still see his fingerprints. Nearby stands Antoine Bourdelle’s Penelope Waiting, which Lenahan had coveted for more than two decades after seeing it in a black-and-white photograph (a version of the sculpture is on display at Musée Bourdelle in Paris).
The house is designed by Las Vegas-based architect Daniel Joseph Chenin
During a meeting at the Sladmore Gallery in London, Lenahan mentioned his longstanding admiration for the piece, only to discover the owner Edward Horswell had one of the few existing casts. ‘He said, “Todd, I’ve never heard anyone get so excited about something that was deeply meaningful to them, that they’ve been dreaming about for decades,” and he made it available to me,’ Lenahan recalls.
His collection includes bronze sculptures by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, which answer to British artist Lynn Chadwick’s geometric abstractions nearby. The varied aesthetic that Lenahan has created is a little hard to categorise, existing somewhere between Sir John Soane’s layered historicism and the sophisticated eclecticism of fashion legend Bill Blass. The distinguishing factor is Lenahan’s approach and the way he views himself not as an owner but as a custodian. ‘I don’t really see them as mine,’ he says. ‘I see them as belonging to the world. These things are so old, they’ve been in the hands of so many people before me. And I am now just one of the many people in these works’ lives responsible for their care.’
Either side of the doorway to the kitchen hang Three Figures by Robert Motherwell and Portrait of a Gentleman by Artemisia Gentileschi. To the right is a cork model by Cornelius Daniel Ward on a Grand Tour table by David Prot; to the left is a cast bronze chair by Andrea Salvetti for Dilmos; and on the floor is a 19th-century Sultanabad rug. In the kitchen is a Warren Platner table with a pair of Klismos chairs from Jonathan Sainsbury
His philosophy extends beyond the preservation of these works, which have also had to have extensive physical conservation to prevent their deterioration over time; he believes in actively facilitating the cultural conversation. When museums request loans, as they have for his Portrait of a Gentleman by Artemisia Gentileschi, which was recently loaned to Paris’ Musée Jacquemart-André, and a fibre work by Olga de Amaral that appeared last year at the Fondation Cartier, Lenahan never asks for payment. ‘My pieces are loaned from my heart with total trust that they’re going to be cared for, and I ask for zero in return because these are pieces that the public deserves to see.’
Tête de Femme et Oiseau par une Belle Journée Bleue by Joan Miró hangs between a portrait by Thomas Phillips and a bench by Tomaso Buzzi. Above the doorways are convex mirrors from Jonathan Sainsbury. The wood floor is by Brian’s Masterpiece
What makes the space feel alive, though, is Lenahan’s continuous rearrangement of the collection. ‘I’m frequently moving things around, constantly recreating little stories, little relationships, little pairings.’ These activities, which are typically undertaken alone somewhere between 10.30pm and 3am, have become a form of choreography. The conversations that Lenahan orchestrates are both deliberate and thoughtful. As you enter the hallway to the main bedroom, you encounter a Steven Meisel photograph of Amber Valletta, with a white poodle, from the Versace years – once owned by Elton John and David Furnish, it was originally installed by Lenahan himself in a project he designed for the couple. The piece hangs beside a Lynn Chadwick bronze. The juxtaposition is instructive.
In the bedroom is a Ralph Lauren bed, covered by a Hermès blanket, and bedside lamps by Aesthetic Decor. Reflected in the mirror is a work from the Study for Athletes series by Mark Beard, while on the wall hangs Mexican photographer Denise de la Rue’s Finito de Córdova with Venus del Espejo, Diego Velázquez, which creates an artistic dialogue with Velázquez’s The Toilet of Venus, one of the 17th-century Spanish painter’s most celebrated works
‘You have Meisel’s subject, all fur and blown-out hair, embodying one era’s definition of glamour, while Chadwick instils femininity into a figure with a polished brass triangular prism for a head and one that reflects the viewer’s own face back at them. There’s this incredible duality between the two pieces,’ Lenahan notes. ‘Meisel is more about the woman’s face, whereas Chadwick’s is more about the body.’
Even Lenahan’s dining room cabinets tell stories, though these are more intimate. The china and crystal on display are pieces left to him by his Italian immigrant grandparents and late mother, representing the only physical continuity from his childhood as a military brat. ‘When you’re in a military family, you have a very transient life. And I was a kid during an era when there was no email, there were no cell phones or text messages. Whenever we left homes, we also left friends, we left schools, but these were the things that always got packed up with great care, wrapped and travelled with us. So they’re kind of like my brothers and sisters in a way.’
In the bathroom, which features fittings by Kallista and lighting by Boyd, is The Wrath of Achilles by Constant Ambroise Roux
The works in this collection help to inspire an ever-shifting cultural conversation about beauty, power and continuity, and it brings a heartbeat to the curation. You don’t need to understand the language of each piece to understand the world they present. An observer may not be familiar with all the works or periods across this eclectic gathering, or understand them individually, but it’s impossible not to be engaged in the conversation.
This article appears in the April 2026 Global Interiors Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 5 March 2025. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today