The work was created by artist collective Indecline in 2016 as part of a series of statues put in public places. While the others were destroyed, this depiction of the US president in the buff could fetch thousands.
Image: Getty Images/S.Platt
Advertisement
The last of a set of naked statues of Donald Trump is to be sold to the highest bidder, Julien's Auctions announced on Tuesday.
The stand-up sculpture of the US president, entitled "The Emperor Has No Balls," is expected to fetch up to $30,000 (€24,200), the California-based auction house said in a statement.
The clay-and-silicone statue is part of a series of unflattering depictions of a nude Trump with a pot belly set up by activist artist collective Indecline in public spaces in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland and Los Angeles weeks before the presidential election in 2016.
It is the last remaining of the life-size sculpture series of Trump in the buff, as the others were vandalized or destroyed. A previous, near-identical statue was sold for around $22,000 in October 2016.
The statue will be auctioned off in the gallery's first street and urban art auction, alongside works from Banksy, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat, in New Jersey on May 2.
A passerby looks at a statue depicting Donald Trump in 2016 in San FranciscoImage: Getty Images/Getty Images/J.Sullivan
In 2016, the Washington Post reported a spokesperson from Indecline saying that the figures were inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's folktale, "The Emperor's New Clothes," about a leader whose inflated confidence leads to his public embarassment.
Indecline is a collective of writers, filmmakers, photographers and "full-time rebels and activists," the group's website says. The group focuses on "social, ecological and economical injustices carried out by American and international governments, corporations and law enforcement agencies." The collective has been linked to previous actions, including covering the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the names of African Americans who had been killed by police and making a large piece of illegal graffiti in California's Mojave desert that stated: "This Land Was Our Land."
The US president has offered praise and dished out criticism of Germany. Whether describing the chancellor as "the greatest" or claiming Berlin owes "vast sums of money" to the US, here are his most memorable quotes.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/C. May
The good, the bad and the ugly
US President Donald Trump has offered both candid praise and unabashed criticism of Germany and its policies. From calling German Chancellor Angela Merkel "possibly the greatest world leader" to describing her open-door refugee policy as a "catastrophic mistake," here are his most memorable quotes regarding Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/C. May
'Greatest'
"Germany's like sitting back silent, collecting money and making a fortune with probably the greatest leader in the world today, Merkel," Trump said in a 2015 interview with US news magazine Time.
Image: Picture alliance/AP Photo/M. Schreiber
'Very bad'
"The Germans are bad, very bad ... Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. Terrible. We'll stop that," Trump said during a NATO leaders summit, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel, which cited sources at the alliance's meeting.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP/E. Vucci
'Something in common'
"As far as wiretapping, I guess, by - you know - [the Obama] administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps," Trump said in March during a press conference with Merkel. He was referring to his unproven allegations that ex-President Barack Obama tapped his phone. There was widespread anger in Germany in 2013 when it was revealed the US National Security Agency tapped Merkel's phone.
Image: Picture alliance/R. Sachs/CNP
'Illegals'
"I think she made one very catastrophic mistake and that was taking all of these illegals (sic), you know taking all of the people from wherever they come from," Trump said in a joint interview published by German daily Bild and British newspaper The Times, referring to Merkel's open-door policy for refugees fleeing war and persecution.
Image: Getty Images/S. Gallup
'Germany owes vast sums of money'
"Despite what you have heard from the fake news, I had a great meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO and the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany," Trump said in a two-tweet statement after meeting with Merkel for the first time in March 2017.
Image: Picture alliance/dpa/L. Mirgeler
'Turning their backs'
"The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition," Trump tweeted in the midst of a row within the German goverment. He went on to claim that: "Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!"
