Boing Boing: An $18,000 bar of soap

Sunday, June 19, 2005

An $18,000 bar of soap

A bar of soap sold for $18,000 this week at Art Basel, a massive international art fair in Switzerland. Gianni Motti's soap artwork was purportedly fabricated from fat formerly belonging to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. From Ananova:

The artist said: "Berlusconi had face lifting and liposuction operations in a clinic in Lugano, where I have good connections that provided me with some of the fat. It was jelly-like and it stunk horribly, like butter gone off or old chip pan oil."

According to Motti, the artwork called Mani Pulite (which means "clean hands" in Italian) expresses opposition to corruption and mafia structures in Italy, as well as his personal opinion of Berlusconi's policies.

Link to Anonova article, Link to Reuters article mentioning the sale (with Motti's name misspelled)

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:12:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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