Piero Manzoni, an Italian artist created 90 of these tins, apparently filled with his own feces. They sold for their equivalent weight in gold at the time. They are each numbered, and number 004 sold recently to the Tate Modern in London (apparently for 70,000 GBP, or the equivalent of about $120,000). Manzoni also blew up balloons and titled the piece "Artist's Breath." He drew long lines on thin strips of paper and sealed them in a can, titled the piece "Lines" and sold them for an exorbitant amount of money. Like Duchamp's "ready-made" urinal, Manzoni questions the difference between art and consumer objects. The other issue I see with this piece, especially, is that no one actually knows if there is feces inside that can, but opening it up to see would completely ruin the piece of art. I suppose it would be quite gruesome, but honestly I am quite curious about what is inside! Clearly the public has accepted this as art (even the Tate has their tin), but do we agree? Is this pushing the boundary too far?
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