Chris Burden’s retrospective at The New Museum in New York seems to pose some serious obstacles what with one of the works requiring a pile of gold bars. But when you think about how the value of art has changed in relation to other financial assets, a stack of gold doesn’t seem like such a big deal:
“When he first made it in the eighties, his idea was to show a million dollars worth of gold, what does that look like,” Lisa Phillips, the museum’s director, told Quartz. “Now, in relation to 100 million dollar art objects, it seems very modest.”
There’s still no gold to go with the piece, so the museum had to borrow it using funds provided by Lonti Ebers, the vice-president of the the Museum’s board of directors, and Bruce Flatt, the “Warren Buffet of Canada.”
How Does a Museum Go About Borrowing $4.4m in Gold? (Quartz)
