Jeff Koons, Balloon Rabbit (Red), 2005-2010, mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating, 168 by 107 by 80 3/4 inches. © Jeff Koons. Photo Tom Powel Imaging.
An East Village office building now has a Jeff Koons sculpture in its lobby.
Balloon Rabbit (Red), 14 feet tall and weighing 6,600 pounds, was installed this week as decoration for the lobby at 51 Astor, a high-rise erected on a site formerly occupied and still owned by the embattled school the Cooper Union. The work is in the collection of Edward J. Minskoff, whose equity company erected the 13-story, 430,000-square-foot building, and will remain indefinitely, according to a representative of Edward J. Minskoff Equities. Rents are reportedly as high as $115 per square foot.
At Christie’s in November, a 12-foot-long, polished stainless steel Jeff Koons sculpture, Balloon Dog (Orange), 1994-2000, set an auction record for a work by a living artist by fetching $58.4 million, just above its $55 million high estimate.
The building and the sculpture bring a new level of glitz to Astor Place, which previously was long known as a gritty hangout for skateboarders. The new building hosts IBM offices and is rumored to be holding out for Twitter as a tenant.
