In all kinds of crazy, this one leads the charts. French artist Marcel Duchamp is known for his quirky takes on art but little did we know that he could even grow courage to meddle with Mona Lisa – one of the most revered art pieces by Leonardo da Vinci. The maverick artist’s painting was one of his nine other works that were together featured for sale in Sotheby’s, Paris.
Duchamp, who is also known as the father of contemporary art had purchased the original Mona Lisa painting in the year 1919, which was thereafter tweaked by him in a rather inappropriate manner. His version sees the otherwise beautiful Mona Lisa with a rounded moustache and a beard, with entitlements that read – L.H.O.O.Q that translate to “elle a chaud au cul” or “she’s horny” in French. It was created by the artist in 1964 and was estimated to be sold for 4,00,000 to 6,00,000 euros. It however beat its estimated price by selling for 632,500 euros ($ 7,50,000).
The collection also included several other surrealist pieces, such as Duchamp’s Boite-en-valise or ‘Box in a Suitcase’ (which beat its pre-sale estimate of 1,80,000 to 2,50,000 euros, selling for 3,19,500 euros) and Buste d’homme by Swiss artist Kurt Seligmann (which sold for 181,250 euros against its estimated price of 60,000 to 80,00 euros). All said, a bearded Mona Lisa for a price like that is surely not my cup of tea!
[Via:Rfi]
