How much would you pay for a naked Donald Trump statue? A winning bidder shells out $22,000
A naked likeness of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is the latest addition to a private citizen’s personal collection following a Saturday night auction. The statue, which appeared on Hollywood Boulevard in August, was sold for $22,000 by street art auction house Julien’s Auctions.
The piece, entitled “The Emperor Has No Balls,” was initially estimated to sell for $10,000 with a portion of the proceeds going to the National Immigration Forum, one of the leading immigrant advocacy organizations in the country. But it was the most talked about piece in the auction, and the price tag more than doubled.
The statue is credited to the anonymous art collective INDECLINE, which brings a punk-rock ethos to ambitious street installations that are filmed and disseminated on social media to ensure their messages last long after the art is removed.
“We want to redirect attention,” said an INDECLINE spokesperson who would not give his name.
Last summer, after Trump made comments about Mexico sending “rapists” to the U.S., members of the group traveled to Tijuana to paint a mural that said “Rape Trump” on the wall separating the U.S.-Mexico border.
And in California’s Mojave Desert, the group created what it claims is the “largest illegal graffiti piece in the world” by painting the words “This Land Was Our Land,” visible from the air, on an old runway.
The life-sized Trump statue however has been the group’s most talked about work. In addition to the one in Hollywood, other statues were unveiled simultaneously in San Francisco, Cleveland, Seattle and New York. The statues were quickly taken down by city workers in each location, but not before generating a social media storm.
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