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Someone Bought L.A.'s Naked Trump Statue For $22,000
'The Emperor Has No Balls' (Photo by Annie Lesser/LAist)
Remember that statue depicting a nude Donald Trump? Someone just dropped $22,000 on the monstrosity. The Trump statue was one of several items auctioned off at Julien's in West Hollywood on Saturday, including a piece by BANKSY, according to LA Weekly. Julien's did not specify who bought the piece, but did note that 80 percent of the proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit National Immigration Forum. The statue had originally been predicted to sell for only $10,000, according to KTLA.
The piece, titled "The Emperor Has No Balls," was created by Joshua "Ginger" Monroe of the artist collective INDECLINE—when we asked the collective about why they created the statue, we were told, "Trump is a monster relentlessly stalking America in a nightmare we can’t seem to wake up from." This is the same group that previously swapped out celebrity names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the victims of police shootings.
Identical Trump figures popped up in several other U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Cleveland. The Cleveland statue is also up for auction, with the opening bid set at $1,000. Proceeds from that sale will go towards funding public art in the Cleveland neighborhood where the piece was originally displayed. According to the listing, that statue has suffered pigment loss to the left hand middle finger, the buttocks and an elbow, but is otherwise in good shape.
The question is, what does one do with a Trump statue? Burn it in effigy? Hide it behind the shower curtain to startle your roommate? Fill it with candy? The possibilities are endless.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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