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Artist unwittingly destroys rare comic books for sculpture

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A STRUGGLING artist was pleased when he turned a pile of old comics into this papier-mache sculpture he estimates to be worth around £400.

 

But he was less than happy when told that the superhero books had been a vintage collection probably worth about £20,000.

 

Andrew Vickers, 49, above, ripped up the pile of magazines he found discarded on a skip after deciding they were perfect for his 6ft creation called The Paperboy, created for an exhibition at Sheffield gallery S1 Artspace.

 

But when comics fan Steve Eyre saw the finished artwork he was stunned that Andrew had used an array of rare comics, including a first edition of The Avengers comic from 1963.

 

Andrew said: “It has made me laugh every day since I found out. People can’t believe I am so jolly about it.”

 

Source

 

Two counts of stupidity here; the artist ripping them up, and whoever chucked them all in a skip.

 

I think what makes it worse, it's a pretty shit sculpture.

 

More pictures and details found on the Daily Mail (sorry)

Edited by MoogleViper

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The most amazing thing about this is that sculpture is supposedly worth £400.

 

Also, he's just admitted to committing a criminal offense.

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I don't think you can go to jail for creating bad art.

 

But maybe you should.

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so he's used £20000 worth of materials to create a£400 sculpture and he is still happy.....

 

fool

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What baffles me is that he didn't think to flick through them before destroying them. Anything that's a first issue will generally be worth something to someone, even if you don't know what it is.

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Art becomes art. Those comics were rotting in a skip and destined for some incinerator somewhere. I'm okay with what he did with them, even if he isn't.

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If you find comic books in a skip, your first thought probably isn't going to be 'these must be worth a fortune' :p

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There's a quote from him on the BBC website:

 

"If somebody chucks things out in the skip they don't generally throw things out that are worth anything.

"To be honest I'm shocked but money has not got such a value to me. I think it is funny.

"I really love the idea of me creating something out of such expensive things that's worth less. I think it's brilliant."

- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-23203033

 

Seems to me like he doesn't care, he's obviously got enough money to live his life how he likes, and is fine with it. In the Mail article it's his mate that's whining.

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If you find comic books in a skip, your first thought probably isn't going to be 'these must be worth a fortune' :p

"must be", no, but anyone ought to think "could be". Especially with 60s/70s comics that almost anybody should recognise the names on. You don't have to know the first thing about comic books to have heard how much they can go for.

 

I'd love to believe he's above this, but I imagine he's just trying to save face after making such a daft mistake

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To be fair, if it was me, I'd be checking for the issues as well and I'm not even into comic books. If I saw something dated from some time ago, the first thing I'd think is "This could be worth some money here" but that's just me in general! :p

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Wow, this must suck for him, well at least he doesn't seem too upset about it, but this is hilarious.

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