Artist Tracey Emin said that she had an idea after a long bout in bed during a stressful relationship period. After four days, she looked at the bed and discarded vodka bottles and cigarette butts and decided that she had created art. Many would say that her work is not art but an unmade bed. However, the work was put on the shortlist in 1999 for the prestigious Turner Prize and it has now been auctioned off for £2.546 million. That is over three million dollars for Emin’s unmade and stained bed.
The 1998 work also features discarded condoms and stains from bodily fluids. It was originally purchased by art collector Charles Saatchi who was seeking between £800,000 and £1.2 million. Like Emin, he has now made a windfall profit from the bed . . . and its anonymous new owner. If you find all of this perfectly bizarre, you are not alone. The work divided critics with some crying foul.
What kills me is that with four kids, including three teenagers, I have been sitting on a gold mine.