Yayoi Kusama’s Naoshima Pumpkin Swept Away by Typhoon
Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (1994) was torn from its spot on a pier in the Japanese city of Naoshima yesterday.
The sculpture was knocked loose by Typhoon Lupit on the same day the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report warning of an irreversible rise in sea levels.
In the past, Kusama’s pumpkin has been removed in anticipation of storms. It’s not clear why that precaution wasn’t taken this time around.
Benesse Art Site, which administers the pumpkin, said they would repair it and restore it to the pier where it has been situated since 1994.
Art dealer Angela Gulbenkian was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison last month for fraudulently selling another yellow pumpkin sculpture for $1.3 million in 2016.
But the Naoshima pumpkin is likely worth significantly more today. A similar yellow and black pumpkin, made of fibreglass reinforced plastic in 2009, sold at Christie’s London in June for US $3.7 million. —[O]
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