Saturday, July 26, 2014

Your Daily Duchamp

In 1924, Marcel Duchamp devised a system to bet in Monte Carlo, but he needed some capitol, so he  and his friend, Man Ray formed a corporation which manufactured and sold bonds to raise 15,000 francs to finance the little escapade. Man Ray took the photo of Duchamp lathered in shaving cream and the legend "moustiques domestiques demistock" is repeated multiple times on the bond. It translates to domestic mosquitoes half stock. He did make a profit for himself and his investors, but if they had held onto the bonds...Well, one of the bonds recently sold at Christies for $1,082,5000....Below is one of the series of photos that Man Ray took for the bond.


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