Strange possible origin of giant, abandoned Chinese metal Marilyn Monroe statue

You may have heard about the 8m-tall, abandoned metal statue of Marilyn Monroe that is quietly resting in a Chinese scrapheap after a brief tenure in front of a mall in Guigang, China. But as Jillian Steinhauer points out, the weird juxtaposition of Giant Metal Marilyn amid the garbage is only the tip of the weird — far stranger are the possible connections to the another, American metal Marilyn, who currently lives at the New Jersey sculpture park Grounds for Sculpture.

Did the unnamed Chinese artists (or their commissioner) copy Johnson — and then mysteriously throw their eight-meter knockoff in the trash? (Upon close inspection of this Reuters photo, Chinese Marilyn’s heels look shorter and thicker than the ones Johnson sculpted.) Does Johnson know about shanzhai Marilyn? Is Marilyn Monroe the new rubber duckie? So many questions. So much intrigue. So little time.

A 26-Foot Marilyn Monroe Sculpture Meets Its End in a Chinese Dump [Jillian Steinhauer/Hyperallergic]

(via JWZ)