Move, move, move

There’s lots of art on TradeMe, much of it bad, but this month there has also been Emil McAvoy’s Police Baton Sculpture. This is the same penis tipped batons that got Morning Report so excited a couple of weeks ago when they were selected as finalists for the Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award.

This is not the first time police batons have been up for sale, as Emil McAvoy obviously knows. Early May 2005, Ross Meurant, formerly second in command of the Red Squad during the Springbok tour of 1981, put his own baton up for sale with a starting bid of $10,000. He later claimed to have received $20,000 for it. You can read his TradeMe entry here. At the time Meurant claimed the baton was one he had specially imported into the country, so Police Baton Sculpture may well be the first NZ-made baton to be sold in this way.

McAvoy has thoughtfully posted some other, cheaper batons that are for sale on Trade Me for people who can’t stump up for his art versions. Nice. But if you want to bid, be warned, the auction closes today.

Image: Police Baton Sculpture by Emil McAvoy