“Even the most Scrooge-like art critics smiled when Sotheby’s auctioned Jeff Koons’ gigantic, shiny ”Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold),” a dazzling piece of artistic eye candy.
A new record for a living artist at auction was set when Jeff Koons’ stainless steel Hanging Heart brought a $23 million sale at Sotheby’s in New York. Hanging Heart, is considered one of the most important works by Koons ever offered at auction.
The bright magenta heart and gold undulating bow, which took ten years from conception to completion, is one of five uniquely colored versions of this work from Koons’ Celebration series. The perfect surface is coated in more than ten layers of paint. Executed in high chromium stainless steel, Hanging Heart weighs over 3,500 pounds, is almost nine feet tall and took over 6,000 man hours to produce. Somehow it manages to appear weightless. Koons, a former Wall Street commodities trader, made five of these works each in a different color…”
~Forbes
