Piero Manzoni, the Italian conceptual artist, created ninety tins of merda d'artista (artist's shit) in May 1961. Each contained 30 grammes of the genuine article and was sold at the same price as gold. The Tate Modern art gallery has just paid £22,300 (approximately $33,500 or €33500) for Can 004
Displaying a stunningly inept understanding of biology, a representative of the Tate calls the series "a seminal work". Even better, Manzoni's wish for the cans to "explode in the vitrines of the collectors" has slowly been coming true. At the last count, over half of the works have done exactly that.
You couldn't make this stuff up, could you?
Posted by Hg on Sunday 30 June 2002 at 21:50.
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