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Posted on 09/15/2026 5:59:14 AM PDT by V_TWIN
Someone's trash truly is someone else's treasure.
At least, if they are a postmodern art collector who likes to set money on fire!
At least that's what a patron of the arts bid for the Merino Gallery‘s broken vacuum cleaner, tucked away in a corner waiting to be discarded.
According to staff, the cleaner had been used throughout the week to vacuum the exhibition floors before its motor reportedly gave out. Rather than immediately throwing it away, a member of the cleaning crew left it beside a wall while waiting for it to be removed.
To the collector, however, its placement appeared intentional. He reportedly spent several minutes examining the machine before asking a gallery representative about acquiring it. Believing the vacuum to be an untitled conceptual work, the collector eventually offered $4,000 for the piece.
Art collectors are dumb.
They'll buy anything if someone tells them it's art.
The museum agreed to sell that broken vacuum for $4,000 ... but then the collector started asking questions about silly things, like certificates of authenticity and the artist's name. 😂
(Excerpt) Read more at notthebee.com ...
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Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
This makes much more sense when you realize most higher end art purchases are not for collecting actual art, they are tax shelters and a way to launder money.
Way back when I taught F2F courses in humanities, I would occasionally take my classes on a trip to the local art museum. One time the exhibit was modernistic artworks, meaning stuff only artsy people would call art. I was discussing various works with the class, and on a whim I walked over to the hygrometer with a cylindrical graph that looked like a seismograph. I began explaining it in terms of artistic elements and design, all with a straight face of course, and the students were all taken in until the guard at the other corner of the room started guffawing loudly. I hoped the student would get the subtle message about the other objects in the room being stuff and not art.
Well, that sucks....................
“...hygrometer with a cylindrical graph that looked like a seismograph.”
It was most likely a ‘hygrothermograph’ that records humidity and temperature in the museum to protect their precious ‘art’, usually for a week per chart. I used to calibrate those things...........
I was in a “museum” once and saw things like a large 6’ x 8’ large white canvas with nothing on it and I mean nothing. It was for sale for $11k. The next “masterpiece” was torn up FedEx boxes glued together in a random pattern (about 2’ x 3’ squarish object). It had a price tag of $5k. Yeah... art. I caught some stares when I was laughing out loud.
I often confuse art and junk.
Thank you, I couldn't think of the word. Everything is digital now.
To be fair, most of the time this museum displays lots of actual art; some of their more recent events were Medici family art through the ages, a collection of recast sculptures from Rodin molds, and a respectful collection of Norman Rockwell illustrations. In fact, one of their present displays is a collection of photographs from, of all people, Sheriff Grady Judd, famous in FR as the sheriff of Polk County, FL.
I’ve seen that white canvas too! It was quite a while ago. I wonder if the one I saw or yours is a copy? :)
“ It was most likely a ‘hygrothermograph’
Interesting. I have one that is called a thermohygrometer.
They have to be the same thing, right?
Yes, either term is acceptable.
Tomato, tomato........
The canvas was in the Bob Bullock Musuem in Austin. The FedEx crap was in the MOMA n NYC a few years ago.
Well, you know what they say.....any object is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
A banana duct taped to a wall sold for 6 million so you never know what people want waste their money on.
Well, you know what they say.....any object is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
A banana duct taped to a wall sold for 6 million so you never know what people want waste their money on.
In fairness, the banana was mocking modern art and a specific call back to Andy Warhol’s banana cover of the Velvet underground album that (much to the shock of Warhol) became a collector’s item.
Jens Haaning is the artist.
He delivered two blank canvases titled “Take the Money and Run”.
Depending on perspective it’s about crap art being sold for high dollars or good art being sold for nothing because the artists are unknown.
In short, political commentary masquerading as art.
There is no art! Art died in the late 19th century. What’s left are feeble politcal scratchings.
There is no art! Art died in the late 19th century. What’s left are feeble politcal scratchings.
LOL!
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