Bourbon-filled train sculpture sells for $33m

A nine and a half foot long train sculpture filled with Jim Beam Bourbon, created by famed contemporary artist Jeff Koons, has sold at auction for US$33.8 million.

A Bourbon-filled steel train created by artist Jeff Koons has sold at auction for $33.8 million

The piece, entitled “Jim Beam – J.B. Turner Train”, was created by Koons in 1986 and formed his second one-man exhibition, Luxury and Degradation.

Having since been acquired by a Chicago-based private collector, the work was sold by Christie’s in New York on Wednesday 15 May for US$33,765,000.

The sale surpassed its $30 million estimate, according to the New York Times.

Said to be an “elegy to the age of steam and steel”, Koons’ sculpture is based on a collectable train decanter made of china and plastic he purchased from New York.

“I wanted to transform it and put it into a different metal but to preserve its soul, and that soul was the alcohol,” Koons told Christies.

Beam filled the sculpture with bottles of Bourbon and placed a tax stamp seal on each cart.

“Invoking old world glamor and filled with bourbon, a piece of found cultural ephemera transformed into indestructible, immaculate steel, ‘Jim Beam – J.B. Turner Train’ taps into many chapters of American history, from the pioneers to Prohibition to Pop,” read Christies lot notes.

The sale was part of Christie’s ‘Post-war and contemporary evening sale’, which saw sales of nearly US$745 million – the auction house’s highest ever total for single auction.