Actor Sean Penn Decided He No Longer Wanted His Gun Collection. So He Hired Jeff Koons to Turn It Into a Sculpture

For Jeff Koons’s latest sculpture, the artist has used an
unusual material: Guns. And not just any guns, but the gun
collection of two-time Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn.

About six years ago, “Sean informed me that he wanted to
decommission his gun collection, and asked if I would have any
interest in creating an artwork out of his guns,” Koons wrote in an
Instagram post that
unveiled the finished work, titled Uli. “I told him,
‘Absolutely.’”

Penn, now 59, made the decision to give up his guns at the
behest of fellow Oscar-winning actor Charlize Theron, whom he dated
from 2013 to 2015. (The 44-year-old South African actress’s
anti-gun beliefs were formed as a teenager, when her abusive father
drunkenly shot at her and her mother. Theron’s mother fired back in
self-defense and killed him.)

“I’m a self-proclaimed alpha male who owns 67 firearms,” Penn
told a star-studded crowd at his 2014 “Help Haiti Home Gala” in
Beverly Hills, as reported by the Daily Mail.
“But I’ve had my mind changed about guns by a strong woman, a
beautiful South African woman.”

To illustrate his new commitment to a gun-free lifestyle, Penn
auctioned off the entirety of his collection for the Haiti relief
charity. “Koons will decommission [and] render inactive all of my
cowardly killing machines,” he announced. “The highest bidder
gets every single one of my guns put in the hands of this iconic
artist and sculptor.”

Journalist and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper placed the winning
bid, edging out then-colleague Piers Morgan at $1.4 million. (This
was actually kind of a steal, considering that Koons is among the
world’s most expensive living artists, having last year seen
his Rabbit sculpture sell for $91 million at
Christie’s New York.)

At the time, in a Tweet that’s since been deleted, Koons called
it “very meaningful” to work with Penn on the Haiti fundraiser,
according to Phaidon. The artist
tagged Penn’s charity, Community Organized Relief Effort, or
CORE, in his Instagram post sharing the new
sculpture with the world.

The finished artwork is made entirely of gunmetal, fusing
together each firearm into a dark totem-like statue. Koons says he
was inspired by the Uli fertility statues traditionally made
by the natives of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea.

“Uli figures are normally made out of wood,” he explained. “They
represent the maternal and paternal spirit of tribal leaders.”

The post Actor Sean Penn Decided He No Longer Wanted His Gun
Collection. So He Hired Jeff Koons to Turn It Into a Sculpture
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