State Department Spending $400,000 on a Camel Statue in Pakistan

The State Department sure is in anguish from
“deep” budget
cuts (like
every year). Heck, the cupboards are so bare, they even

bled $30 million from the Fulbright Program this month. What
can the department still afford?

How about a “500 lb. fiberglass, aluminum, stainless steel,
acrylic and painted”statue of a camel to be put on display at the
American embassy in Pakistan? And it only cost $400,000. And it’s
not even a
one-of-a-kind work.

Buzzfeed got access to a
document about the procurement of “Camel Contemplating a
Needle” and has an exclusive
report:

The work, by noted American artist John Baldessari, depicts a
life-size white camel made of fiberglass staring in puzzlement at
the eye of an oversize shiny needle — a not-so-subtle play on the
New Testament phrase about the difficulty the wealthy have in
entering the kingdom of heaven.

Personally, I thought the camel’s expression was more like “a
smug realization of its own sticker price,” but I digress.

To emphasize Baldassari’s fame, the contracting officials
pulled a section from
Wikipedia. “John Anthony Baldessari (born June 17, 1931) is an
American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found
photography and appropriated images.”

In a statement, State Department press spokeswoman Christine
Foushee said the proposed purchase comes from the department’s
“Office of Art in Embassies.” In new construction projects, she
said, a small part of the total funds, about 0.5%, is spent on art
purchases.

The State Department may have gotten a pretty good deal on the
camel, since Baldessari has sold
even less inspiring works for millions. But they could have
done even better if they had opened the opportunity to competition.
The department didn’t do that though, insisting that only this
camel could satisfy the “unique artistic criteria” for the
embassy.