PIERO MANZONI, Merda d’artista 1961, 2013
ca 22 x 8 x 8 cm
tin can number 36, offset wrap, cellophane bag,
seal with finger print in print
edition 100, i.e. complete edition 9000
published by Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan, Italy
inv.PMan 000-pr

The Fondazione Piero Manzoni presents this item as a re-edition. If so, it would be right to point out some particularities that comes with this so called re-issue of canned excrements of Piero Manzoni:
– the label mentions 30 grams netto, in fact this object weighs 250 grams bruto
– it is not likely that the can contains excrements of Piero Manzoni
– the tin comes in a cellophane bag
– the cellophane bag has a seal with the image of a reproduced finger print of the artist

This concerns tin number 36 of which 100 have been produced. The complete edition consists of 90 tins numbered from 1 – 90. The Fondazione Piero Manzoni has made a re-produced edition of 100 of each number. Hence the total edition of 9000 copies.

White chickens
The German Zero artists took the view that Manzoni’s Merda d’artista, canned excrement, was too conceptual; it was ‘an idea’ rather than an attractive, aesthetic work of art. They would prefer to see the can be excluded from the ‘nul’ exhibition, whereupon Manzoni threatened to release white chickens in their room during the opening. After all, chickens are also white and ‘kinetic’, Manzoni argued; they are monochrome and are moving, like many works of the German colleagues.
Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, 2022

History of prices:
Finarte, Milan, Italy 27 September 2023 € 150 (hammer price)
Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Boetto, Italy 25 August 2023 € 450 (hammer price)
Kunstveiling.nl, Netherlands 18 July 2023 € 125 (hammer price)
Casa d’Aste Capitolium, Brescia, Italy 29 June 2023 € 227
Studio d”Arte Borromeo, Senago MI, Italy 28 August 2023 € 80 (hammer price)
Studio d”Arte Borromeo, Senago MI, Italy 1 April 2023 € 175
Studio d”Arte Borromeo, Senago MI, Italy 5 April 2022 € 90 (hammer price)
LiveAuctioneers, Upper Chichester PA, USA 8 February 2022 € 256 (hammer price)