The Sacramento Kings and City of Sacramento will pay $8 million for an 18-foot-tall metallic sculpture by New York artist Jeff Koons.
Crocker Art Museum Director Lial Jones says the piece will be based on Piglet from the Winnie the Pooh books and will give local artists something to compare their work to.
"The artists that I know -they want to make sure they're not just compared to other artists in this community. They want to make sure that they can play on an international stage. This makes sure that every artist in this region that's included in the public art collection of Sacramento helps start them to play on an international arena."
Kings owners Kevin Nagle, Phil Oates and Vivek Ranadive added $3 million dollars to the $5.5 million the team and city had already pledged to the Art in Public Places program.
A panel selected by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission will decide which local artists will receive the remaining $500,000 of Kings and City money will be spent.
Marcy Friedman -the mother of arena co-developer Mark Friedman- donated $1 million for work by local artists.
Details of the Koons contract will be presented to Sacramento City Council March 3. The council is scheduled to vote on it March 10th.
Note: We found this video that shows one installation from Jeff Koons' "Coloring Book" series. The piece for the arena will be the fourth in the series and may look similar to the piece featured on this video.
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