PaintingsDirect.com - Art in the News

Body for Sale
by Jennifer Dalton

Robert
Diana DeSantis

Canadian artist Michael Daines recently offered The Body of Michael Daines for sale on the web auction site, eBay, providing virtually no explanatory information. A photo showed Daines from the neck down, fully clothed in a T-shirt and baggy jeans. The description simply stated, "overall good condition with minor imperfections."

The sale left much to the imagination: does the buyer immediately receive a live, functioning human being available for cooking, cleaning and errands--or the unappealing opposite? Is the purchase good for a day, a week, or eternity?

Jas
Diana DeSantis

Tyrone
Diana DeSantis

After all that speculation, the truth seemed anti-climactic. When asked about the terms of the sale, Daines answered that he would probably offer the buyer a facsimile of the eBay item description page as a framed artwork. Somehow, savvy bidders must have picked up that the deal was too good to be true. After 10 days on the auction block, the bidding stalled at $10.

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