Money for old rope (with a dead child on it)
October 10 2011
Picture: BG
Viewing the London contemporary art auctions is one of the highlights of my art market year, as the auction houses transform their sale rooms with dramatic lighting and enormous estimates. Where an old master sale is crammed with pictures, people and conversation, contemporary sales are hushed, reverential affairs where no expense is spared. Every piece of art is treated as if it were a priceless masterpiece, its virtues extolled to gullible collectors by trendy specialists in look-at-me glasses. Even the labels are larger than usual, to cope with all those extra zeros. It's worth going just to marvel at the sheer decadence of it all.
The above caught my eye at Christie's. Maurizio Cattelan's Untitled consists of three flagpoles. At the top of one hangs a life-like dummy of a child on a rope. It is the centrepiece of this week's Contemporary Art evening auction on 14th October. At the entrance to the room in which Untitled is displayed is a sign saying:
Please note an artwork in this room is of a challenging nature. Please ask a member of staff if you require any further guidance.
Powerful, or revolting? You decide. But at £900,000-£1,200,000 it provides a telling narrative of the time we live in.
