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Artist who created the Duct-taped Banana artwork has sculpted a toilet from 223 pounds of gold
(www.wsj.com)
Sotheby’s announced plans to auction the 18-karat sculpture, titled America, with opening bids set at around $10 million.
https://archive.is/Kb4HY (wsj)
The duct-taped banana artwork was a popular culture story in 2019.
223 pounds is 3568 ounces or 101151.1 grams. 18 carat is going for around $102/gram. So the raw gold value is: $10317412.2 Dudes minimum bid is roughly the cost of material. I'd make a gold toilet for $300 000, but I'd do it for more too :)
that's actually kind of amusing. like a statement that his effort/labor in this has no value, or the object has no value as art, only its value as raw materials to be scrapped, melted down and sold.
the implication is if some buys it for $10m and then sells it for more later, it's all just speculation and b.s. if the original artist valued their own effort at $0.
a lot of high end, prestige modern art feels like an aggressive insult towards collectors. like that banksy piece that ahredded itself as soon as it sold.
That's exactly what I found funny about it. Like they just didn't want to be out the cost of the material.