A German artist hauled a 410-pound golden cube worth $11.7 million to Central Park in New York City on Wednesday.
Artist Niclas Castello’s piece, comprised of 24-karat gold, was accompanied by Castello’s own security detail from its placing at the park’s venue, the Naumburg Bandshell, from 5:00 a.m. Wednesday through the day, Artnet reported.
Spectators in the park tricked over during the day to gain a closer look at the piece, the New York Times reported.
Citing gold prices at $1,788 per ounce, the artist and his team pinned the material worth of the cube at $11.7 million. It is not for sale.
Castello provided a statement to Artnet on Wednesday and dubbed the cube “a conceptual work of art in all its facets.” He noted that he was inspired to “create something that is beyond our world—that is intangible.”
The piece was cast at a foundry in Aarau, Switzerland, and a unique handmade kiln was used to create the mesmerizing cube to “withstand both the sheer size and volume of gold, as well as the extreme temperatures needed to melt it,” Artnet wrote. The kiln reached temperatures of 1100 degrees Celsius or 2012 degrees Fahrenheit.
The cube measures over one and a half feet on each side and is roughly a quarter-inch thick. On Wednesday night, it was to be transported to a private dinner on Wall Street where celebrities were expected to be in attendance.
Artnet reports that a cryptocurrency launch coincides with the cube’s debut:
And so, as with all things in 2022, an accompanying cryptocurrency is being launched alongside the physical artwork. The Castello Coin, traded as $CAST, is available for purchase online at an initial price of €0.39 ($0.44) each, with an accompanying NFT auction scheduled for 21 February.
“The cube can be seen as a sort of communiqué between an emerging 21st-century cultural ecosystem based on crypto and the ancient world where gold reigned supreme,” says the Viennese gallerist Lisa Kandlhofer, who was in New York for the artwork’s launch.
The contemporary artist, who spends time in New York and Switzerland, was born in 1978 in East Germany. He was “influenced by the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Artnet’s page on Castello stated. Neo-Expressionist Jean Michel Basquiat had a significant influence on his sculptures and paintings.
Castello and his team remain hush on where the 24-karat gold cube is headed next.