Posted on 08/29/2008 3:19:08 AM PDT by nickcarraway
LONDON (AFP) — A solid gold sculpture of British supermodel Kate Moss worth 1.5 million pounds (2.8 million dollars, 1.9 million euros) was unveiled in London on Thursday
The 50 kilogramme (110-pound) work is by artist Marc Quinn, previously famous for a controversial sculpture installed in London's Trafalgar Square of a pregnant woman with no arms due to a medical condition.
"I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment. But even Kate Moss doesn't live up to the image," he said.
SNIP
The golden sculpture, entitled "Siren," will go on display surrounded by other pieces including Crouching Venus, the goddess of love, at the Nereid Gallery of the British Museum on October 4. The show runs until January 25.
(Excerpt) Read more at afp.google.com ...
Someone has taken Kate Moss' role as fashion's golden girl rather literally.
British sculptor Marc Quinn is ready to unveil his latest creation to the world, a nearly $2.8 million, 110-pound solid gold statue of the supermodel, hyped as the largest such creation built since ancient Egypt.
Quinn, the artist behind 2006's Sphinx, a painted bronze statue of Moss in a somewhat provocative yoga pose, has dubbed his new golden girl Siren.
And the British Museum has already heeded its call.
While the venerable London museum has so far only released a close-up photo of the statue's face, the work purportedly shows Moss, once again, in the same contorted yoga pose as before.
"I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment," Quinn said of his fabulously excessive creation. "But even Kate Moss doesn't live up to the image."
The British public will be able to determine for itself whether the statue succeeds where Moss apparently failed, with the objet d'art going on display in the the same British Museum gallery that houses the institution's ancient Greek sculpture collection.
The statue will be on display from Oct. 4 through Jan. 25.
It boggles the mind. Why?
Yeah, but can the statue snort coke and engage in casual sex?
Why?
When it comes to idolatry, not all golden calves are necessarily of the bovine variety....
The article doesn’t say that the statue is life sized, but 110 pounds of gold wouldn’t make that big a lump, since it is so dense. If is is life sized, then it can’t be solid gold through and through. It would have to be a hollow casting of some sort. Even though she’s small, her volume must be over 2 cubic feet. A cubic foot of gold weighs over 1200 pounds.
So then a cubic foot would cost $14.6 million at current prices. Bill Gates at $58 billion could buy 3,969 blocks, maybe enough to build a house out of gold.
Goldfinger did it first.
Well, all he had to do was make a metal structure for the bones and thinly drape the Gold over that. :P
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