Columnist Scott Dickensheets: Bellagio or Omelet art? Pick the Wynn-er

AS ALL EYES focus on Steve Wynn's art-buying spree for the lavish Bellagio resort ($285 million and spending), two eyes -- mine -- turn instead to another fine corporate art trove: the Omelet House collection.

Located in the Henderson eatery, this collection -- paintings, posters, miscellaneous pieces -- isn't nearly as heralded as Wynn's but is more accessible, less pretentious and certainly as enjoyable, particularly if you're not the sort of art snob who disdains paintings signed "House of Art, NY."

Wynn has expert functionaries spanning the globe in search of good buys, but there are other ways to acquire art. Images hung in local Burger King restaurants are carefully selected by Carolyn Hyatt, wife of the franchise owner. "Some of the photographs she even takes herself," a spokeswoman says.

And sometimes the art is just there, in that mysterious way fine art has. According to manager Cheryl Tritschler, the four seascape prints hanging in the rear dining nook of Wienerschnitzel on Sahara -- back beyond the posters for cookies and antenna weenies -- "has been here as long as I have, and I've been here 18 years."

Omelet House co-owner Mike McGowan scoured swap meets here and in California. And whereas Mirage Resorts will tell you exactly zero about its collection, McGowan is more forthcoming.

His aesthetic philosophy? "The things I look for are interesting because they're colorful, or you can relate to them, or they're humorous," McGowan says. "You don't want nondescript pictures." That applies whether you're buying Pollocks or posters of a guy eating pancakes.

Among the Omelet House highlights is an untitled pastel drawing of a woman in a yellow dress, holding a hat and accompanied by a dog that I'm guessing is an Afghan. With her impossibly thin waist, impossibly long legs and impossibly radiant smile, she's a vision of idealized beauty to rival any Renoir or Cezanne in Wynn's collection.

Then there's the portrait of a woman with a yellow flower in her hair and a goblet of amber beer in her hand. While it lacks the stylistic daring of a Picasso or a Van Gogh, it's striking nonetheless, and the ornately carved frame is definitely something.

McGowan has also gathered sculpture (a hanging brass toucan) and fine photography (a suite of motorcycle posters). In what a museum might refer to as "an adjunct gallery" but what at the Omelet House is undoubtedly called "the men's room entryway," you'll find a pair of modern classics: a poster of a monkey on a toilet and another of Marilyn Monroe in a va-va-voom pose.

Naturally, not every Omelet House patron is a patron of the arts. The breakfast crowd on a recent morning seemed largely oblivious to the aesthetic wonder around them, particularly the single woman munching bacon while staring into space.

Although the Omelet House collection wasn't cheap, it wouldn't qualify for the tax break the state now extends to purchasers of art worth $25,000 or more -- namely, the Mirage.

"You're looking at about $5,000," McGowan says, assessing his collection. Take the brass toucan. "They're a hundred, a hundred and a quarter all by themselves. But that's nothing. Ask Steve Wynn how much he spends."

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