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Buy Your Own Piss Christ At Sotheby's Tomorrow
By
Lauren Evans
Published May 14, 2014
Modified May 14, 2014
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By
Lauren Evans
Published May 14, 2014
Modified May 14, 2014
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Once you've bought your sprawling Mediterranean Revival mansion, you're going to need some decorations! What more fitting a wall hanging for Face Lift Manor than a fetching print of the iconic Piss Christ, going on sale at Sotheby's tomorrow?
Piss Christ was born in 1987 at the hand of artist Andres Serrano, who created the image by dunking a plastic crucifix with accompanying Jesus into a bath of his own urine (Serrano's, not Jesus's) and photographing the ensuing image. It's not immediately clear from the photo that the fizzy substance in which the Son of God floats is human waste, but knowledge once given can't be taken back.
The very existence of the peece rankled some conservatives and religious groups, but the shit didn't really hit the fan until 1989, when it became evident that Serrano had received $20,000 from the taxpayer funded National Endowment of the Arts. In 2012, the photograph was shown in NYC, leading Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, to make a "Feces Obama." So of course Donahue has something to say about Sotheby's latest Piss Christ sale:
"Serrano claims that Christians who complain about 'Piss Christ' do not understand that he never intended to insult them. Perhaps it was meant as a “love letter.” No matter, there is no record of him defecating in a jar with a statue of Muhammad. Or a picture of his mother. Perhaps he loves them less."
The estimated bid is currently at $100,000 to $150,000, though the same print sold at Christie's in 1999 for $277,000, so it will certainly go for more. Whatever. We've seen weirder.
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andres serrano
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piss christ
sotheby's
Lauren Evans
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