New York – Donald and Melania Trump had a simple request: to borrow a Van Gogh painting from a New York museum for their White House private quarters.
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Instead, the Washington Post reports the Guggenheim Museum’s curator came up with a pointedly satirical counter-offer: a solid gold toilet used by visitors in a museum restroom until last August.
The first couple wanted Van Gogh’s “Landscape With Snow,” featuring a man and his dog.
Curator Nancy Spector, who’s been openly critical of Trump in social media, emailed the White House in September that the Trumps could borrow the toilet installation titled “America” — Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s jab at the nation’s greedier instincts. The toilet has an estimated value topping $1 million.
The Post said the White House has stayed silent on the offer.
Maurizio Cattelan (and Nancy Spector’s taste in the) satire on American greed? His “art” sold for over $2 million a piece as far back as 2004. One piece sold for nearly $8 million in 2001 and one piece in 2016 sold for over $17 million. And he still alive.