10 tons of old rope worth 1 million pounds

British artist David Shrigley collected old ropes for months and piled them up in huge piles in a luxury London gallery, selling them for £1 million.

David Shrigley may not be able to answer the question "how long is a piece of wire?", but he knows exactly... the pile of wire weighs about 10 tons - Photo: AFP

According to the Bangkok Post, British artist David Shrigley recently brought tons of discarded ropes into a gallery in London (UK) and posted a price tag of 1 million pounds on them, as a "play on words" with the idiom "money for old rope" - referring to making money very easily, almost without effort.

1 million pounds for 10 tons of old rope

The exhibition, which opened on November 14 at the Stephen Friedman Gallery (central London), includes four giant piles of rope, with a total weight of about 10 tons.

When AFP visited on November 13, many passersby looked through the large glass windows of the luxury art gallery in Mayfair and laughed at the strange scene inside.

David Shrigley said his idea came from wanting to create a "literal" version of the above idiom: "I wanted to see what would happen if I turned that saying into a real work of art."

For around seven months, David Shrigley and his team collected old ropes from fishermen, climbing centres and ports across the UK. They brought them all to their workshop in Brighton to be cleaned before being put on display.

"It turns out people are quite willing to give away old rope because it can't be recycled," says David Shrigley.

Much of it is marine rope – the kind that would normally end up in landfill. This type of waste is difficult to recycle and the amount thrown away is almost endless. David Shrigley collects as much as he can, piles it up and hangs it on a shelf… £1m - Photo: PA

The gallery installation happened quite spontaneously. “I didn’t have any plan, I just piled them up,” David Shrigley says. “I barely made any aesthetic decisions, it was just four piles of wire of similar size.”

David Shrigley admits that the £1m price tag is both “a bit steep” and a bit of a joke. But he says there’s a good reason for the figure: “By weight, it’s a bargain. You can’t normally buy much art for £1m, but 10 tonnes is a different story.”

David Shrigley argues that art does not have "a single meaning", art is not a puzzle with an answer, but a catalyst for ideas and dialogue.

The artist had anticipated that many skeptics would scoff at the work. "I'd be a little surprised if anyone actually bought it. But go and see it and see what you think. If you had a million pounds, it might be a smart investment," said David Shrigley.

The Guardian commented: "This work is both intimate and strangely endearing. Look at you: standing in the middle of a luxury art gallery, trying to think about the profound layers of ideas hidden within… a bunch of ropes. It's absurd, satirical, funny."

The exhibition is open free of charge until December 20.

Shanghai

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/10-tan-day-thung-cu-gia-1-trieu-bang-anh-lieu-co-ai-dam-mua-20251114134001139.htm