The storied legacy of British pranksterism gets a new chapter with a tidbit of highly entertaining news concerning our favorite box mix-master Gavin Turk. One of the original YBAs, Turk is known for his highly irreverent found-object installations and sculptures featuring his own likeness. One of Turk’s pieces — a brick signed by the artist and worth an estimated £3,000 — was featured in an exhibition called (appropriately) “Bricks.” Only at the end of the show did curators realize that Turk’s original had been swapped out with a run-of-the-mill brick from another section of the gallery. Estimated worth? 40 pence.
And the best part? The thief’s inscription of “Thank you, have a nice day” on the replacement brick. The original (which, we repeat, is a plain old signed brick with a market price of over $4,000) is number eight in a series of ten created by Gavin Turk for the Area 10 Project Space in London’s Peckham. According to The Sun, Turk is said to be “upset but flattered” by the switcheroo. As for the curators, they just want it back.
This is right up there with Damien Hirst and the pencil thief, no?
Stream our In Memoriam mini-playlist: 1. “Brick” by Ben Folds Five 2. “Brick House” by The Commodores 3. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John 4. “Bricks” by Gucci Mane