Then There's Maude...Nude! Topless Portrait of Bea Arthur Expected to Sell for $1 Million +

[Update: The painting Bea Arthur Naked did indeed sell at last night's auction. An anonymous buyer bid an astonishing $1.9 million US via telephone for the portrait of the late actress.]

[Update II: Comic Jeff Ross posted a photo of himself holding the portrait on Twitter, stating, "Biggest surprise of my life. Thank you @jimmykimmel - the most generous guy in the world! #BeaArthur,", implying the late night talk show host had purchased the painting as a gift. Jimmy Kimmel responded with his own tweet, "Bea is watching over all of us, especially you," confirming he had bought the painting, before later tweeting, "Contrary to "news" reports, I didn't buy the Bea Arthur painting - not even for @realjeffreyross - but I did buy the Mona Lisa Lampanelli."]

 So did Kimmel actually purchase the painting? My guess would be yes, as I don't think Ross has that kind of money!

The theme song lyrics to the classic Norman Lear 70s sitcom Maude starring the late, great Bea Arthur did mention Lady Godiva being a freedom rider, but I didn't see this one coming!

A nude portrait of Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur will be going under the gavel at Christie's Auction House in New York City this evening...and the stunning painting is anticipated to bring in as much as $1.5 to $2 million US!

The portrait by regarded artist John Currin is of Arthur from the time she was on the controversial series Maude. The actress did not sit for the artist, and was completely rendered from clothed photographs of the actress, with the naughty bits derived from the artist's imagination, we hope. The portrait was initially blasted by art critics when it was first unveiled in 1991, with some calling it sexist and misogynistic.

Art critic Peter Schjeldahl once dubbed Currin's art work his “acrid fantasy portraits of menopausal women”. Currin writes in the lot notes for tonight's auction at Christie's, “I had a vision in my head of Bea Arthur, and I found a picture of her. I was going to put a scarf ensemble on her like that from her Maude days, and I drew the body just to drape it. It was then that I realized that the painting was fantastic as it was." Arthur died of cancer in 2009.

The Arthur portrait joins works from other famed artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jackson Pollock that will be up for bid tonight during the house's Post War & Contemporary Art Sale.

You may view the entire, uncensored Bea Arthur portrait over at Entertainment Weekly's website.

Eye of the Beholder: "Hideous" Gargoyle Statue Brings Big Money at Auction

Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder after a "hideous" gargoyle statue recently sold at auction for a record-setting £66,000 ($105,000 US).

Despite the statue's grotesque appearance, people fought to obtain the unique objet d'art when it hit the auction block this week at the Wooley & Wallis auction house in Salisbury, England. The statue was created by the prestigious pottery manufacturers the Martin Brothers circa the turn on the 20th Century. 

The figure depicts a squat, smiling gargoyle holding onto its ample chest with gnarled fingers, with a beaming smile on its porcine like face. Auctioneers attribute the record sum paid for the figurine to the upcoming release of the new film The Hobbit, the prequel to the Lord of the Rings saga based on the classic books of J.R.R. Tolkien. 

 Gargoyles first began appearing over 2000 years ago, originating in Ancient Greece and Egypt. They became popular cathedral and building adornments during the Middle Ages, as they were used to decorate buildings and to provide a spout for rainwater to drain. They also became popular as a good-luck charm, as many people believed that placing gargoyles atop structures would help keep evil spirits at bay.

  

German Court to Artist: Killing Puppies Onstage Is NOT Considered Art

A court in Berlin, Germany, has warned an artist planning to strangle two puppies live onstage that laws definitely prohibit anyone from killing animals for the purpose of entertainment!

The German artist had planned to stage his play, titled Death as Metamorphosis, at a small theater in the Spandau district of Berlin, as a way to highlight the unfortunate plight of sled dogs in Alaska, who are often killed once they can no longer compete in races.

Accompanied by funeral music and an ominous-sounding gong, the artist had planned to strangle two innocent puppies with cable ties after a brief meditation. Fortunately, a Berlin administrative court stopped the show from going ahead as planned on Friday, saying that animal protection laws in the country forbid an animal from being harmed or killed during a performance meant for entertainment. Who would find something so disturbing "entertainment" is another matter entirely...

All of this comes the same week as a group of students at Berlin's University of the Arts threatened to guillotine a sheep live on camera, depending on the results of an online vote. The students claimed the project was meant to stimulate debate on humanity and democracy. According to Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper, the website registered 120,000 "Yes" votes approving the killing of the animal and 190,000 "No" votes in only six days.

Artist Collective Covers Madrid in What?!?

Europe is pretty much an open-air museum. With so many architectural splendors and statues on every street corner, it's culture overdose. A European art collective known as Luzinterruptus decided it wanted to make art a bit more personal and tangible to the average person. How to accomplish this goal? They decided to place hundreds of silicone breasts filled with small lights to statues, sculptures and any other piece of art that they saw fit throughout Madrid, Spain. Needless to say, this made old pervs everyone want to use their tactile senses to explore the strange new artistic additions. The group was very pleased with the results of their experiment. "With this effective call, we got the people to approach the art that makes up their everyday environment, which they hardly notice, and devote some time to looking at it and touching it with delight," a spokesperson for the group said in a public statement. The lesson here: Yes, boobs make everything greater...

From the Huffington Post:

Artist Group Covers Madrid in...Breasts?