
Buy this and save $99,000,075 million
Want to “give your home an edgy look with some serious pizzazz?” Well, look no further. Because “lifestyle retailer” Z Gallerie has just the home design trinket for you: a bling-a-rrific metallic skull that bears an uncanny resemblance to Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted sculpture, For the Love of God — only this version is almost $100 million cheaper. The best part: gift wrap is only $4.25 (shipping not included). Which means that you can purchase this fine piece of home design for yourself and more than a hundred of your closest friends — and still not come close to reaching the original’s price tag (which is almost seven times the GDP of Tuvalu). Act now. Or until Lladró comes out with a $19.95 version of Jeff Koons’ Michael Jackson and Bubbles.
(Many thanks to Ryan Frank for the link.)
Update & Correction: Paddy Johnson over at AFC rightly points out that Hirst’s skull is now valued at £150 million (or about $263 million) — roughly the GDP of Micronesia.

If only the director of the Cremaster Cycle had thought to come up with something as good as this: a plaster statue madeover by seashells and a glue gun. And don’t forget the blowfish. (Photo by C-M.)

Shells playing poker. (Photo by C-M.)
Hey Folks:
I’m on the road, on assignment, enjoying everything that the great state of Florida has to offer, which means I won’t be posting Digests this week or next. I’ll be back on Monday, September 15th, with all the regular art industry nonsense, and hopefully a few good photos of alligators.
xox, C.

(Photos by C-M. Click on images to supersize.)
Found this over the weekend: the Stephen Colbert desk calendar. Nothing wrong with the calendar. But what tech-happy incompetent mangled Colbert’s fingers, at left? Or was Colbert in some industrial accident that I don’t know anything about?
See a close-up here:

Spooky.
See additional Photoshop nightmares at Photoshop Disasters.
Posted by C-Monster.

When you need a little death and destruction to go with the morning latte. (Photos by C-M.)
The Museu Picasso in Barcelona is one of those places where if you so much as shift your camera strap on your shoulder, you instantly find yourself surrounded by 17 bruisers in blue shirts who bellow, “Nooo pictures!” The super strict no-photo policy is presumably intended to protect the integrity of Picasso’s sometimes overused imagery . . . so that the museum can overuse it on mouse pads and key chains. Lord knows that nothing respects the dignity of those who died in the Nazi bombing of Guernica quite like slapping an image of their suffering on a mug.
Click on images to supersize. More after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Art Merch: Museu Picasso, Barcelona.’

From the C-Monster Family Album: My uncle shows a cousin the delicate art of balance.
- The Electrical Walks of Christina Kubisch. (Be sure to give the audio file a listen. It’s trippy.)
- Anish Kapoor to get a solo at the Royal Academy in London next year. The Academy is also planning a revamp of its Burlington Gardens by architect David Chipperfield.
- Photographer Pieter Hugo discusses his deep suspicion of photography, as well as how his series, the Hyena Men, came together. See images here.
- Millionaires: Mortgage that pricey art collection for extra cash. (Via A.J.)
- Artist seeks patron.
- ¡Artworld Smackdown! AFC vs. the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones.
- The Day in Bacterial Cleansing: A Milan scientist has employed a voracious bacterium called Desulfovibrio vulgaris vulgaris in art conservation. The little buggers apparently love to feast on the black crust that forms on stone statues and buildings.
- *fab* has a few preview pix from Manifesta 7, in Trentino, Italy, on her Flickr feed.
- Shigeru Ban to design a new 30,000 square foot building for the Aspen Art Museum.
- Parts one, two and three of a four-part interview with Gary Panter, now up on VBS.tv.
- Paper Magazine discovers Bushwick. And their version doesn’t seem to include any brown people.
- Street art of the Day: JR in Cartagena, Spain.
- It’s all about graffiti merch: The Smart Cap Vending Machine.
- Fast Forward: The Gehry Pavilion, at London’s Serpentine Gallery, assembled in seven minutes.
- An interesting hotel at the end of the world: Remota, by German del Sol, in Chilean Patagonia.
- 10 amazing ghost towns. And their artistic parallels.
- The obligatory pre-Olympics Beijing’s-development-is-killing-the old-part-of-the-city story.
- Legal Update: Lesbians can still be lesbians, according to Greek court.
- Our economy’s in the pooper because Wall Street got “drunk,” reports our fearless President. More like high on cocaine.
- Your moment of I’ve Never Been to Me. (Thank you, Mlle. Connasse.)
Posted by C-Monster.