White House Wanted a Van Gogh Painting, Was Offered 'America' Golden Toilet Art Instead
The White House reportedly tried to borrow a painting by Vincent van Gogh from the Guggenheim Museum. However, they were offered the golden toilet art piece famously called the "America" instead.
A report by the Washington Post recently revealed an email signed by Guggenheim Museum curator Nancy Spector addressed to the White House when the latter apparently tried to borrow a Van Gogh painting to be displayed in President Donald Trump's official residence.
However, Spector could only offer Maurizio Cattelan's art piece named the "America" -- a fully-functioning 18-karat gold toilet. "America" had been installed in the Guggenheim Museum in a special cubicle in its actual bathroom and was available for visitors to use in a year-long exhibit.
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The Washington Post obtained a copy of Spector's email addressed to Donna Hayashi Smith of the White House's Office of Curator. The same publication reported that the museum's spokesperson, Sarah Eaton, had confirmed that the email was indeed from the supposed sender.
Spector's email revealed that the White House had specifically requested for Van Gogh's "Landscape with Snow" painting to be displayed in President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump's "private living quarters."
While Spector appreciated the Trumps' interest on the Van Gogh painting, she apologized that the "Landscape with Snow" was unavailable at the moment because it had recently been permitted to be exhibited in Spain and would later be moved to Guggenheim's Thannhauser Galleries "for the foreseeable future."
That was when Spector recommended that the Trumps borrow "America" which, according to the curator, was "fortuitously" available after being a year-long installation at the Guggenheim.
Interestingly, Spector wrote a blog on the Guggenheim Museum's website about the "America" art piece and its relevance to the "time of Trump" back in Aug. 17, 2017.
In Spector's 2017 blog post, she noted that artist Cattelan had described "America" as the "one-percent art for the ninety-nine percent." True enough, Spector added that at least 100,000 museum visitors had lined up "to commune with art and with nature."
"When the sculpture came off view on September 15, Trump had been in office for 238 days, a term marked by scandal and defined by the deliberate rollback of countless civil liberties, in addition to climate-change denial that puts our planet in peril," Spector further wrote.
