Thomas Lawson, represented here by a painting of a bloody-looking world map, was one of them; John Miller, who contributes a sculpture of a suspended globe colored an excremental brown, was another.
Works by artists like Jean Shin, who contributed a sculpture made of melted records, and Leo Villareal, who was commissioned to create a piece using 14,000 L.E.D. lights, will be displayed throughout; roving burlesque performers will even fill the stairwells and lounges.
Artists who donated work for the auction were of the first rank – Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry, Mark Wallinger and Antony Gormley, who contributed a sculpture that sold for £105,000.
Josh Tonsfeldt contributes a sculpture consisting mainly of a flower branch whose leaves and petals vibrate almost silently, thanks to a subwoofer, like a group of sensitive brushstrokes looking for a place to land.
Fabio Viale, an Italian artist unfamiliar to me (and likely to remain so), contributes a gimmicky sculpture of actual-size interlocked truck tires titled "Infinite".
Female artists were ostensibly excluded, "following Magical law," although at least five women exhibited under pseudonyms — among them the poet and novelist Judith Gautier, who contributed a relief sculpture entitled "Kundry, Rose of Hell".
Gabriel Popian, with his wife, Lucia, and their son John, artists from Romania, have contributed a movable sculpture that commemorates the return of the ships, using several elements of Viking decoration.
She contributed a mesmerizing video sculpture of her dog Lolabelle for a 2006 exhibition.
There are surprisingly few nods to either the jubilee or the Olympics, although Vida Bewley has contributed a manic little ceramic sculpture of the Queen, draped in a tartan sash and sidesaddled on a piebald mule, with a plaintive corgi pleading to join in the fun.
"I have always been intrigued by porcelain, by the material's economic as well as its sexual connotations," says Koons, who contributed a set of plates featuring images of the porcelain sculptures in his "Banality" series.
