Donald Trump had asked the Guggenheim Museum in New York to leave them a Van Gogh to decorate a wing of the White House, but instead offered him this used toilet.
A $1 million gold "throne" for the President of the United States
Although the story took place last September, the Washington Post revealed what happened today, a story that is prime meat for a good meme or a hilarious joke about the surrealism of it.
It is not uncommon for presidents to be able to choose some important works from certain museums to borrow for a while to decorate the White House, so Donald Trump chose one from Vincent Van Gogh that was on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. It is "Snowy Landscape", painted by the New Irish artist in 1888 and where you can see a man walking with a black hat and his dog in a snow-capped field of Arles, in France. The curator of the New York gallery, Nancy Spector, kindly replied that she was not available, but in return offered another: an 18-karat gold lavatory that had been exhibited in 2016 and worked perfectly.
What's surprising isn't there. If we can analyze the type of work in question, there may be second readings that are not difficult to take out. The title of the same is "América", by contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan, which at the time was presented as a satirical critique of the excess of wealth and waste in the country. During its exhibition in the museum's fifth-floor bathrooms, the toilet was used by about 100,000 people, and now the Guggenheim wants the Trump family to be its new owner.
In the same e-mail in which this possibility was offered, the President of the United States explained that the toilet works perfectly, but that if it is transported it should be handled very gently and installed with specific instructions. From the White House they have not confirmed or denied that the petition and offer existed, but it is understood that they did not finally give their approval, so the toilet will not be moved, although who knows!
The price of the piece is estimated to be around a million dollars.