British artist Tracy Emin sells her used and unmade bed, complete with cigarette butts, empty vodka bottles, used underwear and more, for a massive $4.5 million at an auction.
"My Bed" is a Turner Prize-nominee that, according to London critics, exemplified and expressed Emin's "sluttish personality, the destrius of a life quintessentially her own; it was, above all, confessional," according to The European Graduate School.
Prior to the actual auction, Emin's "My Bed" was estimated at $2 million. The collector and seller of the bed, Charles Saatchi, ex-husband of Nigella Lawson, was responsible in promoting Emin's career, New.co.au has said.
The 50-year-old Emin, who saw "My Bed" on display last Friday confessed that the feeling was surreal. She said, "Every time I'm near the bed or install the bed I get flashbacks and recollections of when I first saw the bed, which was in my bedroom, and that was 16 years ago. I can't really, still, come to the reality of the situation that it's moved and come so far. I just hope it goes to a nice place. It's helped me a lot."
Christie's art specialist, Francis Outred confirmed that Emin's bed was considered one of the most important British 20th century artworks and said that it "transformed the way the general public engage with contemporary art."
Meanwhile, in an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Emin narrated, "I was thinking, with the cigarettes, that's so weird because I don't smoke anymore. I haven't had sex for years, and there's this condom. God, there's a tampon, and I haven't had a period for years."
Emin's "My Bed" is rivaled by "Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995," a tent that reveals the names of all the person she's slept it. Eventually acquired by Saatchi, the piece was destroyed in a London fire in 2004, TIME confirmed.
