Chateau Mouton Rothschild has unveiled a wine label designed by controversial modernist artist Jeff Koons for its 2010 vintage.
Photo credit: Bertrand Rindoff-Petroff
Jeff Koons has combined the classical ‘House of the Venus Marina III’, a fresco from ancient Roman Pompeii, with a silver line drawing depicting a sailing boat and a sun.
His design continues an annual tradition at Baron Philippe de Rothschild to commission original artwork for its Mouton wine label, a practice started in 1945. Previous commissioned artists include a 1975 pop-art piece by Andy Warhol, as well as Picasso, Dali, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
Dubbed the Willy Wonka of art, New York-based Koons has spent the past 30 years dividing opinion with his avant-garde scupltures.
His ‘tulips’ – a large steel and chromium bouquet of multi-coloured tulips – which was sold for US$33,682,500 (£21,219,975) at Christie’s New York in November this year, made him the world’s most expensive living artist. He has also exhibited work in Château de Versailles in Paris.
In 1991, he married the Hungarian porn star and Italian politician La Cicciolina, a union which was dissolved shortly afterwards. His Made in Heaven series was a set of enormous canvasses, exhibited at Tate Modern, graphically depicting the couple consummating their marriage.
Mouton 2010 is currently the most expensive of the Pauillac first-growth château’s last ten vintages, according to the Liv-ex fine wine index.
The 2010 was released on to the Bordeaux wine futures market last year at €600 p/b ex-negociant. It was most recently trading for £5,728 per 12-bottle case, Liv-ex said.
Written by Adam Lechmere
