Trump's Wedding Cake Favor Purchased By Artist Who Soaked Crucifix In Urine

ablokhin/iStock
By  Gwen Ihnat

I know very little about visual art, and subtweets are often too deep for me. So I was unfamiliar with New York performance artist Andres Serrano, known for his work with photographs of corpses and bodily fluids, including Piss Christ, wherein he dipped a crucifix into his own urine.

So when an inedible model of Donald Trump's wedding cake went up for auction, Serrano became the winning bidder, paying $1,880 for the mini chocolate cake that was given as a party favor at Donald and Melania's 2005 wedding, reports The Art Newspaper. While a baked good, the mini-cake is held together by wire, inspired by the couple's actual $50,000 Grand Marnier-soaked sponge cake. Artnet News describes, "The fully intact, three-inch-tall 'chocolate truffle cake with single sugar-spun buttercream rose and gold flakes' was sold in its original (albeit stained) packaging, which bears the monogram MDT"; 350 guests at the Trumps' wedding received one of these inedible favors to keep on their curio shelves for all eternity. The favor was estimated to go for $1,500, so Serrano paid a little over. (Important question: Where does this money go? Are the Trumps so hard up for cash they are now auctioning off personal memorabilia?)

The Art Newspaper sagely notes that Serrano previously photographed Trump as part of his America photographic series. So when asked about Trump in an interview with The Guardian, Serrano replied, "I never speak ill of people who've posed for me." He is remaining similarly reticent about what kind of art project this cake could wind up in, telling The Art Newspaper: "Artists work in mysterious ways. You never know what they're up to! I don't like to talk about things until I'm ready to talk." Fair enough, but this is probably the most interesting way this auction could have gone. We will leave it to the artist to decide which bodily fluids will go best with this particular cake item.

Recommended