Artists Needs $3.3 Million In Gold
Even big-name artists are having trouble these days. According to the Los Angeles Times, Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills has announced that Saturday’s opening of a new work by Chris Burden, “One Ton, One Kilo,” has been postponed while the search continues for 220 pounds — or about $3.3 million worth — of gold bars needed to assemble the piece.
The Times continues: ‘As we reported Monday, the stash Gagosian and Burden had secured for the exhibition got caught up in a civil action that federal authorities have brought against alleged Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford. His assets, including Stanford Coins and Bullion, the company that sold Gagosian the required gold, have been frozen by court order.
‘”We’re working on securing the gold we need for the exhibition,” Michelle Pobar, a Gagosian spokeswoman, told Culture Monster today. “We are hopeful to open within a week or two, so please stay tuned.”‘
Omg, that is disgusting. People are starving to death by the thousands everyday because someone decided that a rare metal was worth more than life and freedom, and here someone is making an exhibition of the very epitome of human vanity. It’s worthless metal made rich only by men. It’s caused people to starve even a abundant garden and they’re making an exhibition of it?! Oh, it’s beautiful alright, but what’s far more rare and beautiful than gold is a human being that isn’t vain. I hope to God that some proceeds come from that thing for something better than just a stagnant hunk of metal in the middle of some room, otherwise it’s just ironically cruel in a worldly sense.