Globally recognized art is becoming a feature of real estate development aimed at the mobile rich. Nowhere is that more evident than in Miami where two Argentine developers are using art to market their flagship Florida projects. Alan Faena has the large Faena District project and Eduardo Constantini has the new Oceana Bal Harbor for which he bought two Jeff Koons sculptures for $14m:
“Miami is becoming truly a metropolis, and Jeff Koons is a representation of that, with the visibility that he has, and the quality of his art,” Mr. Costantini said. “You have like, citizens of the world, who travel a lot, and have more than two residences, but they have the sensitivity to appreciate good things, good quality.”
The works will be owned by the residents of the development. That means the price, maintenance and insurance costs will be charged to the 250 units of the development:
The works, “Pluto and Proserpina” and “Ballerina” are both larger-than-life sized sculptures that Mr. Costantini says he purchased last year for $14 million. The first is an 11-foot tall work that depicts the classic theme of the rape of Proserpina, the Roman goddess of the spring, by Pluto, lord of the underworld. The sculpture is made out of chromium and live plants, and covered in gold coloring; the developer plans to place it in front of a reflecting pool the breezeway of the apartment condo complex, which is designed by Bernardo Fort-Brescia of Miami firm Arquitectonica.
The other work, a sculpture of a seated ballerina that resembles in style some of Koons’s balloon-animal inspired work, will sit at the other end of the breezeway. One of the two Koons works, “Pluto and Proserpina,” will first be lent to the Whitney Museum in New York to be shown in a retrospective of Mr. Koons’s work. The Bal Harbour condo is set to start construction later this year and be completed in 2016.
Newest Miami Condo Enticement: Modern Art (Developments: Wall Street Journal)
