UP IN SMOKE: Statue of Spain’s King Felipe that future owner has to burn on sale for €200,000

TWO artists have put their statue of Spain’s King Felipe up for sale with one condition, the new owner has to burn it and record the fire on film.

The four-metre-tall statue, created by Santiago Sierra and Eugenio Merino, is priced at €200,000 and is currently on display at the ARCO art fair in Madrid. It has been dubbed Ninot after the name given to figurines burnt in Valencia festivals.

Luis Navarro, an assistant to the artists, said the artists had set out to create something that had to be destroyed.

“We are looking for a type of collector who is not obsessed with the idea of possession or accumulation of objects but actually takes pleasure in destroying the piece of art they’ve just purchased,” Navarro said.

“The destruction of the piece will be documented and what remains will be a historical document of its time,” he added.

The artists’ work comes after Sierra displayed photographs of jailed Catalan politicians at ARCO last year.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia opened ARCO this year but did not view the statue, a fair spokesperson said.

The Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain exhibit was later pulled and sparked a debate about censorship at the fair.

The statue also follows a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling last year which found Spain had violated two activists’ human rights for burning pictures of royals in 2007.