It might look like a load of rubbish, but this piece of bin-bag artwork is set to sell for at least £51,000.
The piece, titled Dump, is the work of British artist Gavin Turk, a modernist artist who studied at the Royal College of Art. Although it may look like a smelly bin bag full of rubbish, the creation is in fact a lump of bronze that's been painted black and moulded.
Advert
The work has gone viral however after Phillips Auction House - who are selling the limited edition works on behalf of Turk - posted adverts for it on Facebook, inviting a slew of comments from amused social media users.
"I have a whole roll of bags like that. Been sitting on a goldmine and had no idea," wrote one account, another adding: "What's in the bag? Better be something good."
Despite the mockery though, one of the limited Dump items has already fetched a hefty figure from Phillips. With an estimated sale value of between £20,000 and £30,000, a previous version sold for a whopping £32,000. This latest version is set to go for even more.
Gavin's website describes the work: "A bag full of discarded products, unrecycled organic matter thrown in with the by-products of our wasteful consumerist lifestyles.
Advert
"This rubbish is encapsulated in the formal roundness of this classic trompe-l'œil (trick of the eye) artwork.
"We are defined by what we throw away and conversely we are deconstructed by what we choose to display in our hallowed museum halls."
Turk himself said of Dump: "It makes you reconsider the value of art and the labour that goes into making it."
Turk is considered part of a group known as the Young British Artists - a group of artists who started exhibiting together in London in the late 1980's and had a major impact on the global arts community.
Advert
Among their numbers are Damien Hirst - who gained notoriety in the early 90's for his series of works using formaldehyde to preserve dead animals - and Tracy Emin, perhaps most famous for her 1997 work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, which featured a tent appliquéd with the names of everyone she had ever shared a bed with.
Turk, meanwhile, is known for his series of prints of Elvis and posters of Che Guevara, which gained him some notoriety at the beginning of the century.
He has been working with bronze to create visual illusions for over two decades - including his 2000 work Bags, which was a similar piece but with plastic bags the focus.
Featured Image Credit: Phillips Auction HouseTopics: UK News