Garbage with certificate of authenticity, "memories" for fans

The enthusiasm of Taylor Swift fans seems to know no bounds. After collecting albums, bracelets, tickets and any other object associated with the artist, some admirers were willing to pay $ 25 even for... garbage. More precisely, for various waste collected near the place where the singer's wedding to American football star Travis Kelce took place, reports AFP. The objects were collected by New York artist Justin Gignac from the streets around Madison Square Garden, where, according to AFP, the ceremony attended by hundreds of famous guests took place, away from the eyes of the press and the curious. The collection included everything: cigarette butts, water bottle caps, police demarcation tape, straws, disposable cutlery, an audio headset and even an ovulation test. If for the sanitation services these would have represented simple waste, for the artist's admirers they became souvenirs worthy of a showcase.

Each object was presented online as a "sculpture", sealed in a transparent plastic cube and signed on the back by the artist.

• Everything sold out in less than a day

The commercial success was not long in coming. Less than 24 hours after the sale was launched, all 50 available objects had found buyers. "The initiative attracted many Taylor Swift fans who simply want a piece, even an indirect one, of the wedding," Justin Gignac told AFP. The artist said he obtained approximately $ 1,250 from this series and does not rule out the possibility of putting other "time capsules" up for sale, as he describes his creations. "I try to immortalize important moments in the cultural life of New York. It seemed to me that this was one of them," Gignac explained, quoted by AFP.

• A business built from... what others throw away

According to AFP, Justin Gignac has been selling waste collected from New York for several years, transforming it into conceptual art objects. This time, however, the main ingredient was not the garbage, but the proximity to one of the most watched social events of the year. The ceremony between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce was watched from a distance by thousands of admirers of the artist, winner of 14 Grammy awards. Some of them came specifically to New York in the hope of capturing at least one image from the event, but the area was completely isolated, and public access was impossible. In the end, those who were unable to make it to the wedding found an alternative solution: they bought what the wedding left behind. And if there is an economic lesson in this story, it could be that, when the demand is high enough, even garbage can become a luxury product.