Boy with Frog
The eight-foot-tall sculpture of a boy holding a squirming frog was commissioned to sit at the tip of the Punta della Dogana, between the Canalgrande and the Giudecca canals in Venice.
François Pinault, the French luxury goods magnate and collector, commissioned the Californian artist Charles Ray (born 1953) the sculpture, made of white-painted stainless steel, after signing a 33-year-agreement with the city to transform the 17th-century Dogana, a former customs house, into an art museum filled with work from his vast collection.
It opened in June 2009, on the eve of that year’s Venice Biennale.
Mr. Pinault also oversees the 18th-century Palazzo Grassi, which he opened as an art space in 2007.
To the chagrin of the artist, the city of Venice removed on 2013 the controversial work, photographed daily by scores of tourists.
Boy with Frog
The eight-foot-tall sculpture of a boy holding a squirming frog was commissioned to sit at the tip of the Punta della Dogana, between the Canalgrande and the Giudecca canals in Venice.
François Pinault, the French luxury goods magnate and collector, commissioned the Californian artist Charles Ray (born 1953) the sculpture, made of white-painted stainless steel, after signing a 33-year-agreement with the city to transform the 17th-century Dogana, a former customs house, into an art museum filled with work from his vast collection.
It opened in June 2009, on the eve of that year’s Venice Biennale.
Mr. Pinault also oversees the 18th-century Palazzo Grassi, which he opened as an art space in 2007.
To the chagrin of the artist, the city of Venice removed on 2013 the controversial work, photographed daily by scores of tourists.