A $11.7 million gold cube Artwork related to bitcoin and NFTs is on display for one day on the Central Park Ice Patch, with strict security.
Today, German artist Niclas Castello revealed a conceptual art installation, a cube weighing 186 kg of pure 24-karat gold, in Central Park.At around 5 a.m., the Castello CUBE, as it’s known, was rolled into the Park’s Naumburg Bandshell. Based on current gold prices, the 410-pound chunk is worth roughly $11.7 million, or $1,788 per ounce.
But don’t get your hopes up: it’ll be escorted by a large security force until the end of the day, and then taken away to “a special dinner on Wall Street, where various celebrities are believed to be attending,” according to ArtNet.
The Cube is billed as a “socle du monde” (world’s base) sculpture, but there’s no word on where it’ll end up after that, which makes sense given how hefty it is and how much planning it would take to move it.
Those Were the Days
Castello created the cube in Aarua, Switzerland, in a specially built foundry capable of reaching the 1100 degrees Celsius required to melt the gold.
The artist has long worked in the conceptual arena, citing Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol as influences. He, like them, uses pop culture to make a point about consumer society and how art, commerce, and the wealthy are all intertwined in the post-modern era. (I’m sure several MFA students are already working on Nouvelle Cubism thesis dissertations.)
There’s a Crypto Connection, Of Course.
“Create something that is beyond our world—something is intangible,” Castello told ArtNet of his cube. The point is, even though the cube is enormous and heavy with meaning, it is still a physical item. You could touch it if it weren’t for the security detail, reinforcing its physical presence.
But do you have any idea what is intangible and exists outside of our world? Of course, there are cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Cube is, of course, spinning off both, as is the case with practically anything these days. The Castello Coin, which will be exchanged as $CAST, is currently available for purchase online for $0.44 each, but only to Americans and only if paid in euros. On February 21, an associated NFT auction will take place, allowing you to add some of that conceptual luster to your cell phone’s meta wallet.
