Die Guillotine: German Artists Who Planned To Kill Sheep Sell Controversial Project For $2.3 Million

An anonymous buyer from the U.S. has purchased a homemade guillotine from two German art students for $2.3 million. The guillotine was the centerpiece of a wildly viral online art project, in which the artists planned to decapitate a live sheep if enough online votes were cast in favor of its death.

Last week, The Huffington Post ran the initial story involving the art students and the online vote. They'd set up a website with a simple video explaining the project, showcasing the colorful guillotine and introducing the world to their lamb, which would either live or die when voting ended.

In a previous e-mailed statement, the artists said they were taking on "the role of the executioner, sacrificing their own desires and ethics for the good of the majority." And the project, they said, simply made them "instruments of democracy."

A spokesperson for the artists, Iman Rezai and Rouven Materne -- both of whom are students at Berlin's University of the Arts -- would only say that the guillotine's buyer was "a private art collector from the USA" who had heard about the project through the media. Apparently there had been a number of inquiries to purchase the guillotine, but the artists wanted to wait it out until the "voting period" for killing the lamb had finished.

"But for the young artists, this is a surprising big deal," the spokesperson said. "So they sold."

The buyer has not yet decided whether he will lend out the guillotine for exhibitions, or whether he will let the voting period on the lamb's life run out.

The spokesperson said: "He bought it because of the art. Also, it is a fact that it might be a way to save the sheep's life."

This news coincides with German authorities stopping a planned performance art piece involving the strangling of puppies. The Guardian reported that an unidentified artist had "planned to use cable ties to strangle the dogs, followed by a brief meditation accompanied by funeral procession music and a giant gong."

The project was meant to be a protest against the killing of sled dogs in Alaska and hunting dogs in Spain.

Watch the initial "Making Of" video for the guillotine:

Comments

[Nancy Black]

03:19 PM on 05/12/2012

This is so sad; it reminds of the movies in the 60's where actual women were killed and their death was videotaped so everyone could feel the horror. It's not art; it's a picture of the darkness inside humanity and lack of soul.

[J Whyman]

10:19 AM on 05/10/2012

It is sad that they where rewarded for the cruel stunt.

[NuritheTurk]

05:04 AM on 05/10/2012

The children of Hitler are alive and well !

[Gronkie]

01:21 PM on 05/08/2012

Look! The emperor has new clothes! And they're really nice!

[Katie Barber]

03:08 PM on 05/07/2012

"instruments of democracy"? Since when is a democracy voting to see if something innocent should die?

[Hardyman1966]

02:34 PM on 05/07/2012

Who uses day-glo these days?  Honestly.

[Rissa64]

12:06 PM on 05/07/2012

Background check anyone? If I buy a gun the, FBI checks me out. I would hope the FBI is looking into this too. Perfect weapon for a sicko serial killer to hide in his basement.

[Abmaj7]

07:47 AM on 05/07/2012

They need better quality hash for that hookah. You come up with all kinds of peculiar thoughts when smoking the equivalent of lawn cigars. By the way, why does the blade on the guillotine have a large hole in it? Is it actually a stage magic apparatus a la Alice Cooper?

[Wonder Land]

08:48 AM on 05/07/2012

It's for the head........

[Abmaj7]

09:54 AM on 05/07/2012

No,no, not the wooden stanchion; the blade itself has a large hole. Look at the very last second of the video when they drop the blade.

[joeheyjoe]

05:46 AM on 05/07/2012

People are so messed up! Since when is killing innocent animals considered art? Don't these people have any compassion.

[Micheal Anderson]

05:19 AM on 05/07/2012

"the artists said they were taking on "the role of the executioner, sacrificing their own desires and ethics for the good of the majority." And the project, they said, simply made them "instruments of democracy."

That's not art, that's stupid. Leave it to the Germans to consider decapitating live animals online as art.

[Rissa64]

12:07 PM on 05/07/2012

Hmm I would think the French would be first to consider this as "art" considering the role the guillotine played in their Revolution.

[Al Schrader]

05:04 AM on 05/07/2012

It's not for sheep, it's for water mellons. You wanna slice ? Pull the rope. Bamb, you got a slice of watermellon. Like a sledge-o-matic only it's a slice-o-matic. Connect a crankshaft and a motor to it, and it will slice salami....Al-

[mneff07]

04:15 AM on 05/07/2012

How utterly sick!

[TheROMANempire]

04:03 AM on 05/07/2012

for how many cows and chickens (for example) that die everyday for our consumption - is it not difficult to see one lamb die for the sake of a conversation? The idea of a martyr and the resurrection of the famous death machine "the guillotine" are interesting and at least needs some response besides negative dismissals. This can tell us a lot about or cultures and how we view death.

[Shelbalee]

03:59 AM on 05/07/2012

People are starving and there are people that buy "Art" S*** like this?? seriously? These so called artists need to be arrested.

[crp767]

02:34 AM on 05/07/2012

Anyone who would take part in this either side will see nothing but bad luck all the days of their sick lives. Don't bother writting back saying I'm the sick one, I would never hurt an animal.