An Art World Thanksgiving

Jeff Koons became the most expensive living artist at auction last week when his Hanging Heart fetched $23.6 million at Sotheby's. On Thursday, he'll find himself on the other side of the high/low culture divide when a giant, helium-filled replica of his Rabbit (1986) floats down Broadway with Snoopy, Mr. Potato Head, Dora the Explorer, and Pikachu. More than 50 feet tall and 25 feet wide, it was made with a material that approximates the reflective effect of the stainless steel in which the originals were cast. And those originals? There's one at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, which will mount a retrospective of Koons' career in May, and another in the collection of Eli and Edythe Broad's foundation. The art world will likely be giving thanks that the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S. didn't level the market this month and that, instead, more records were broken and set. The shiny Rabbit balloon traveling the length of Manhattan could be their mascot.

Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Partial gift of Stefan T. Edlis and H. Gael Neeson.