Dubai: A controversial painting encrusted with elephant poop will be sold during an auction for an estimated price of £1.5 million to £2 million (Dh8.4 million to Dh11.2 million) later this month.
Fine arts auction house Christie’s confirmed to Gulf News that the 1996 artwork by British artist Chris Ofili will be one of the art pieces that will be featured during the Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sale in London on June 30.
The eight-foot high painting on linen is a depiction of a black woman wearing a blue robe. It was done in acrylic, oil, glitter and polyester resin, and encrusted with elephant dung.
The woman in the painting is surrounded by collaged images that look like butterflies but are actually pornographic pictures.
It will be auctioned alongside other post-war and contemporary art works.
Titled The holy virgin Mary, the painting has been labeled by critics as “sick” and “disgusting," and considered an affront to religion.
New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had reportedly filed a court case against the Brooklyn Museum of Art for exhibiting the painting in 1999.
This is not the first time a painting with elephant dung has achieved a high sale value. Ofili’s 1998 Orgena, another artwork that incorporated elephant dung, was sold at a Christie’s auction for £1.9 million in June 30, 2010.
A spokesperson for Christie’s said that was a record for the English Turner Prize-winning artist.
Ramin Salsali, an art collector and founder of the Salsali Private Museum in Dubai said it is not rare to see odd and controversial artworks getting sold for astonishing prices.
“The price is not an issue of ugliness of an art work. Ugliness is the result of an individual contemplation. Maybe I find the art work ugly and the other viewer not,” Salsali told Gulf News.
The art collector said that the reputation and standing of the artist, the story behind an art work, demand and market situation, all dictate the sale price of a painting.
