Jeff Koons
Vacuum cleaners in vitrines, basketballs in tanks, and a stainless-steel rabbit with no face.
Jeff Koons was born in York, Pennsylvania in 1955 and worked as a commodities broker on Wall Street while making the early work. The New series put unused vacuum cleaners in lit acrylic vitrines; Equilibrium suspended basketballs in tanks of distilled water; Banality produced the porcelain Michael Jackson and Bubbles; and the Celebration series turned party objects into monumental mirror-polished stainless steel — the balloon dogs, the tulips, the rabbit. He runs a large studio, has been through several copyright actions, and has repeatedly held the auction record for a living artist.
Everything hangs on fabrication and condition. The polished stainless works are made to a tolerance that makes any scratch, dent or fingerprint mark permanent and effectively unrepairable, and they must be handled in gloves and shipped in purpose-built crates — original crating is part of the asset. Editions are typically small, of three to five plus proofs, and are frequently in different colours, each a separate work. The porcelain and polychrome wood editions of the Banality series are fragile. Documentation from the studio is expected at every level.
If you own a work by Jeff Koons
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.