More than 82,000 people attended Art Basel Miami Beach, up 6 percent from 2017 according to organizers. Among the parties, networking and art, visitors were treated to “Excerpts From the Taj Mahal (The Truth Always Happens”), including discarded pieces from Donald Trump’s former Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. The show was curated by artist Peter Tunney, owner of the Peter Tunney Experience gallery at Wynwood Walls, who has recycled Trump’s discards into pieces of art.
Among the works displayed were two golden marquees weighing about 1,000 pounds each, oil paintings, wallpaper torn from the walls, a life-size elephant sculpture, headboards, rugs, construction blueprints and a 30,000-piece chandelier. Some items were installed right on the beach.
Tunney added, “Here was the idea: Make the world’s largest golden-plastic carnival of crap with the most slot machines in the world, borrow a billion dollars in 1990 at 14 percent interest and think you’re gonna kill it. Probably not your greatest idea ever. The truth always happens. It ends up in the garbage can.” He said, “Every square inch of the place was laid out in these plans. And it never worked. It was just a slow grind to the dumpster and basically didn’t serve anybody in any way.”
The former Trump Taj Mahal, which Trump bought for nearly $1 billion, featured an ornate crown of onion domes, a pair of two-ton concrete elephant statues and 17 crystal chandeliers. A little more than a year after it opened in 1987, the Trump Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy and closed on October 10, 2016.
