ALL THAT GLITTERS

Artist Plunks Down 410-Pound Gold Cube in Central Park

The gaudy sculpture accompanies a cryptocurrency launch, naturally.

A German artist dropped $11.7 million in gold in Central Park Thursday morning amid the snow and mud. Niclas Castello’s gaudy gold cube, which is called “socle du monde,” was put on display around 5 a.m. along with an accompanying security detail. The sculpture, weighing in at 410 pounds, is made of pure 24-carat gold and will remain on view until the evening, when it will travel to a private Wall Street dinner. Castello told Artnet News that the work was “a conceptual work of art in all its facets” intended to “create something that is beyond our world—that is intangible.” He’s launching a cryptocurrency to go along with it, the Castello Coin, which trades as $CAST.