Consider a diamond-encrusted
platinum skull by artist Damien Hirst has been sold to an investment
group for the asking price of $100 million, a spokeswoman for Hirst's
London gallery White Cube said on Thursday.
The skull, cast from a 35-year-old 18th century European man but retaining the original teeth, is coated with 8,601 diamonds, including a large pink diamond worth more than four million pounds in the centre of its forehead.
The skull, cast from a 35-year-old 18th century European man but retaining the original teeth, is coated with 8,601 diamonds, including a large pink diamond worth more than four million pounds in the centre of its forehead.
Maurizio Cattelan's wax and resin sculpture of a diminutive Hitler on his knees is titled 'Him'
- The artwork, completed in 2001, fetched $17.2million at Christie's auction
- Cattelan, known as the art world's resident prankster, has created sculptures of historical figures like JFK and Pope John Paul II
- His fully-functional toilet cast in solid gold will be installed in Guggenheim bathroom this summer
A
statue of Hitler on his knees was auctioned for a record-setting $17.2
million on Sunday, the most for any work by Italian art world prankster
Maurizio Cattelan.
The
wax and resin statue titled Him, called 'one of the most shocking and
disquieting works of art to have emerged in the post-war era', had been
expected to fetch between $10million and $15million at the Christie's
auction in New York's Rockefeller Plaza.
The
previous record for a work by 55-year-old Cattelan was $7.9 million for
a statue featuring a wax statue of himself peeping out of a hole in the
floor.
The artwork 'Him', depicting Hitler on his
knees in prayer, fetched $17.2million today at a Christie's auction in
midtown New York. It is artist Maurizio Cattelan's most expensive work
thus far
Him, which
was completed in 2001, disrupts the viewer's expectations with its
size. From behind, the statue appears to be that of a young boy praying,
while the all too recognizable face creates an unsettling contrast
Him, which was completed in 2001, disrupts the viewer's expectations with its size.
From
behind, the statue appears to be that of a young boy praying, while the
all too recognizable face creates an unsettling contrast.
Cattelan,
who considered destroying the piece of work several times, said:
'Hitler is pure fear; it’s an image of terrible pain. It even hurts to
pronounce his name. And yet that name has conquered my memory, it lives
in my head, even if it remains taboo.
'Hitler
is everywhere, haunting the specter of history; and yet he is
unmentionable, irreproducible, wrapped in a blanket of silence.
'I’m
not trying to offend anyone. I don’t want to raise a new conflict or
create some publicity; I would just like that image to become a
territory for negotiation or a test for our psychoses.’
The
statue sparked controversy in 2012 when it was installed in a former
Warsaw ghetto, where thousands of Jews died under Nazi rule.
Some
accused the work of belittling the suffering of Jewish victims, while
others saw the piece as a reflection on evil and its many forms.
Maurizio Cattelan (pictured) is known as the art world's resident prankster and provocateur
The
controversial artist is known for taking on big names such as John F.
Kennedy, cast in one sculpture lying in a coffin, while the famous La
Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour) shows Pope John Paul II being crushed by a
meteor.
But Cattelan shrugs off claims he is a provocateur, saying: 'I actually think that reality is far more provocative than my art.
'I just take it; I’m always borrowing pieces — crumbs really — of everyday reality.
'If you think my work is provocative, it means that reality is extremely provocative, and we just don’t react to it.
'Maybe we no longer pay attention to the way we live in the world… We are anesthetized.’
Cattelan
declared he would retire after his landmark 2011 retrospective at the
Guggenheim Museum in New York, where his work was strung from the
ceiling into the atrium, leaving the galleries empty.
The
55-year-old made headline news in late April after it was revealed a
new site-specific work would be installed at the museum.
Titled
America, Cattelan will be installing a fully functional toilet, cast in
solid gold, at the Guggenheim for the use of its patrons.
He is known for taking
on big names such as John F. Kennedy and Pope John Paul II. Pictured,
his Guggenheim retrospective in 2011, which left the galleries empty as
his work hung from the ceiling
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