Sculpture of 124 years of England Football Failures Sells for £425,000

We suppose that when you're looking for inspiration for a new piece of art, it helps if you have plenty of source material to mine.

So it makes logical sense that Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan would choose the manifold disasters that have befallen English football over the years as the basis for his work, which has sold at auction for a staggering £425,000.

The untitled piece is an enormous black granite sculpture which lists every single defeat suffered by the national team between 1874 and 1998: a total of 124 years of hurt.

Cattelan has said that, "I guess it’s a piece which talks about pride, missed opportunities and death." Although, perhaps, i''s just an elaborate opportunity to gloat about how superior his own national team has been over that same time period.

It was sold at London auction house Sotheby's as part of their Bear Witness sale, which concludes today, and has already generated in excess of £26.5m.

We're willing to bet good money that a Scotsman bought this one.

[via Guardian]

(Image: Sotheby's)