May 10th, 2011 is big day for Sotheby’s New York Auction House, as they are auctioning off a dozen or so expensive works of fine art later this evening. Two of the higher price tag items up for sale are Andy Warhol’s Sixteen Jackies and a Jeff Koons porcelain sculpture entitled Pink Panther (see image above). As I was trolling around online looking for a picture of the Pink Panther sculpture I came across some Old News (i.e. over 30 days) about a video game created by Multi-media artist Hunter Jonakin called Jeff Koons Must Die!Check out this video:

I’m not much of a video game player, but this one looks like fun! Jonakin explains what the game is all about below:

Jeff Koons Must Die!!! is made up of a fabricated 80’s style stand-up arcade cabinet and a simulated digital environment presented in a first-person perspective. Viewers must pay twenty-five cents to play the game and the virtual environment is traversed with a joystick and two arcade buttons. The premise of the video game is to allow the viewer to virtually destroy work by the artist, Jeff Koons.

An Iconic Balloon Dog Sculpture is Destroyed in a Scene from Jeff Koons Must Die!

Jeff Koons is one of the most polarizing and well known contemporary artists living today. He attempts to elevate the banal by constructing large metal sculptures that resemble balloon animals, oil paintings that contain subject matter derived from digital collage, and large-scale pornographic photographs featuring the artist and his former wife, to name a few. All of Koons’s art is constructed by assistants. In general, viewers love or hate Koons and his work, and that is why he was chosen as the subject matter for this piece.

The game is set in a large museum during a Jeff Koons retrospective. The viewer is given a rocket launcher and the choice to destroy any of the work displayed in the gallery. If nothing is destroyed the player is allowed to look around for a couple of minutes and then the game ends. However, if one or more pieces are destroyed, an animated model of Jeff Koons walks out and chastises the viewer for annihilating his art. He then sends guards to kill the player. If the player survives this round then he or she is afforded the ability to enter a room where waves of curators, lawyers, assistants, and guards spawn until the player is dead. In the end, the game is unwinnable, and acts as a comment on the fine art studio system, museum culture, art and commerce, hierarchical power structures, and the destructive tendencies of gallery goers, to name a few.”

Jeff Koons’ Pink Panther is expected to sell for between $30 and $40 Million Dollars at tonight’s auction.