Rihanna Buys $160,000 Marilyn Monroe Artwork
Artist Claire Milner's Swarovski Marilyn Monroe portrait commissioned by Rihanna.
Photo: Splash News
If you haven't been clued into the style world of Rihanna lately, let's just say you have a LOT of catching up to do. First of all, our multi-faceted gal just landed a fashion reality show that will air in the UK this summer (no word on whether we'll get it stateside), and she also acquired a new "Thug Life" tattoo. It seems like she's truly enjoying her adopted hometown of Los Angeles, too, as she's taken to attending Lakers games and Cirque du Soliel shows wearing American flag t-shirts and head-to-toe leather . It's also been reported that she's currently zhuzing up her LA pad and recently commissioned a $160,000 Marilyn Monroe portrait made entirely of Swarovski crystals. Created by UK artist Claire Milner especially for Ri-Ri, the art piece took four months to finish, measures 5 feet x 5 feet, is covered in 65,000 crystals, and weighs 182 pounds. Let's discuss, shall we?
We did a little research on artist Claire Milner and found that she is a former graphic designer and freelance illustrator based in lovely York, England, who creates large-scale mosaic pieces "with a bright, nave quality." She currently works in celebrity portraiture and sometimes sneaks text into the artwork as a sort of subliminal messaging bonus. She's also a member of BAMM (no relation to Emeril Lagasse), better! known a s the British Association for Modern Mosaic and, apparently, has clients that include private collectors, corporations, and, well, RIHANNA. It seems as if she's particularly proud of this Marilyn piece as it looks to have been a painstaking accomplishment, and she even went so far as to show how it might appear in a pretend version of Ri's house.
Milner has created other celeb crystal pieces in the likenesses of David Beckham and President Barack Obama, and it makes us wonder who her next celebrity subject might be. Perhaps Rihanna herself? Wait, no, she's done that already in the form of a mixed-media portrait entitled "Contemplating Rhianna" complete with quotes, song lyrics, and some impressive mosaic vajazzling. Perhaps this is where Ri first discovered Claire Milner? Either way, this Rihanna portrait can adorn your wall for only $4500.
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