MSCHF is back in Brooklyn with a new piece that turns art ownership into a game. Their latest work, “King Solomon’s Baby,” lands at Pioneer Works on July 10, and it does something only MSCHF would dream up: the art actually gets divided up based on who buys it.
Here’s how it works. The sculpture is priced at $100,000 for one collector. But if more people join in, the piece gets split up and each buyer pays less—two buyers pay $50,000 each, three buyers pay $33,333, and so on. The final number of slices depends on how many are willing to go in together. This isn’t just a sale, it’s a performance. The actual cutting of “King Solomon’s Baby” is a centerpiece of the event, with Pioneer Works hosting the public for a two-day viewing and streaming the whole process online.
This approach revives the biblical story of King Solomon with MSCHF’s signature twist. Where the original tale was about judgment and division, here the collective turns it into a commentary on the art market. If a few people go in early, they have to trust others will jump onboard and share the cost—and the sculpture. MSCHF calls it a “financial trust fall.”
It’s not the first time the group has toyed with value and ownership. Past projects include the ATM Leaderboard, which ranked Art Basel Miami visitors by their bank accounts, and the infamous Damien Hirst painting that got cut up and sold as single dots. “King Solomon’s Baby” pushes the joke further, asking collectors if slicing an artwork makes it more—or less—valuable. And as a bonus, dividing the sculpture sidesteps a lot of the headache that comes with storing or shipping big pieces.
If you want in, sales open July 10 at 2PM EST, only on kingsolomonsbaby.com. Pioneer Works will host a public reception from 7 to 9PM the same day, with the first slice happening at 8:30PM. Slicing continues in-person and online the next two days, with the fragmented sculpture sticking around for Pioneer Works’ Second Sunday event. It’s both a spectacle and a tongue-in-cheek solution to art world logistics—pure MSCHF.
EDIT: The final number reached 1000 sales and will be assigned randomly to buyers.
