A Bed Only a Mother Could Love...

A bed left unmade for 16 years and surrounded by trash sold at Christie's yesterday for $4.3 million. The artist who slept in it for four days felt that it was a true representation of heartbreak, surrounded by ashtrays, empty liquor bottles, and dirty laundry. Take a look at it here.

There's no question, it certainly tells a story of sleepless nights filled with chain-smoking re-hashed conversations, numbing fiery booze, tear-stained pillows, and angrily-kicked sheets. Most humans who have loved and lost have had their beds look similar at some point in their lives. So, who would buy this object of commonly shared misery? The lost love, out of some sense of guilt (or even pleasure) at having caused such pain? The artist herself, to boost PR on her other work? A Spock-like soul who surrounds himself with emotional works to express what he cannot?

I'm inclined to think it was a mother, who can't bear to see a child's pain, and bought it to make the bed, tidy the mess, kiss the hurt with toiling hands, and make it all better.