More than $50 million was raised to buy the mummified body of Vladimir Lenin as part of an art project, which, according to New York-based Georgian artist David Datuna, has been met with wide support from both US and Russian citizens
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2020) More than $50 million was raised to buy the mummified body of Vladimir Lenin as part of an art project, which, according to New York-based Georgian artist David Datuna, has been met with wide support from both US and Russian citizens.
On Thursday, the artist's press service said that Datuna wanted to build a copy of the communist leader's landmark Red Square mausoleum in Washington. He intended to buy Lenin's body for an initial payment of $1 million. Later, the Communist Party leader, Gennady Zyuganov, told Sputnik that only "traitors could sell their homeland, history, and leaders."
"Despite the fact that you are a chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, it seems to me that you have forgotten that Vladimir Lenin is the leader of the world proletariat, not just the Russian one. Even if you do not want to give up the body forever, perhaps you will consider the idea of transferring Lenin at least for some time, especially since the problem of having the leader's body in downtown Moscow worries more and more Russians," Datuna told Sputnik.
The artist noted that he had received dozens of offers from those wishing to become coinvestors in the project, currently totaling over $50 million.
"The project was met with the support of both American and Russian citizens, despite the negative reaction of some Russian politicians," Datuna said.
According to the artist, the project symbolizes big changes in the United States, which are expressed in the movement of society towards socialist and communist transformations. Lenin and his mausoleum represent those changes, the demand for which is especially high in the United States ahead of the presidential election, the artist said.
Datuna, who was born in Georgia but now lives and works in New York, has had exhibits in Europe, Russia, China and the United States. In 2011, his portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made out of miniature images of the Mona Lisa, was sold to a Russian businessman for nearly $300,000.
