100 kilos of gold bricks will not be arriving at the Gagosian Gallery in Santa Monica, California this weekend. The bricks were to have been the centerpiece of a show called One Ton One Kilo by artist Chris Burden. The gold was bought from Stanford Coins and Bullion, part of the Stanford Financial group. You know, Stanford, the mini-Madoff guy accused of bilking investors in an $8-billion ponzi scheme. Now the transfer is frozen while the SEC investigates Stanford. It appears that large-scale conceptual sculpture is but the latest unexpected casualty of the economic crisis.
Announcement [Gagosian Gallery] (Thanks to Dan!) (Photo: bhrgunatha)
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“However, the company the artist bought them from, Stanford Coins and Bullion, part of the Stanford Financial group.”
Sentence fail.
@Aeroracere: Please use the links located in the top left column to contact the author directly concerning any spelling/grammar errors rather than pointing them out in the comments. One reason is that authors don’t read the comments as much as they read their emails, another is it clogs up the comments, and the last is it’s bad etiquette according to the comment code.
@uÉıןÉɹʇsnÉ_GitEmSteveDave: noted
It’s a cover up. The real gold was stolen by two ex-rappers, an ex-diver, a actor, and a hot South African blonde chick in mini Coopers.
@BPA-Free_GitEmSteveDave: Are you classifying Mark Wahlberg as an ex-rapper?
@rockasocky: yes? Didn’t say anything about skill.
Couldn’t Cash4Gold match the price that Stanford Coins & Bullion gave him?
If it works like all other schemes, that gold is going to be divided up among all the people stolen from. Next time pay at delivery.
So I So I wonder what would be worth more, the value of the gold, or the gold bricks transformed into some art? Anyone seen the art market lately (like Damien Hirst and his $100 million diamond skull)?
@Jessy Irwin: I’m guessing the bars, as once they are transformed into art, they would lose all of their identifying marks, and have to be retested and re-bricked.
*sniff* But the 100 kilos of cocaine show is still on, right? *snort* Oh damn, my nose is bleeding again…
In case anyone cares, 100 kilos of gold is worth about $3,021,500.
@ShortBus: What were worth when he bought them?
Thankfully that gold was discovered and the victims will have some compensation. Who knows depending when he bought the gold this might have been one of the best trades the man ever made.
For anyone unaware Chris Burden is one of the greatest influential performance artists. You may have heard of one of his earlier works where he had a man shoot him in the arm at a gallery exhibit. He now does things like this and building unmanned ships to sale up and down coastlines.