In China, clean air comes at a hefty price.
A single glass jar of fresh, French mountain air netted $860 at an auction of 100 Chinese artists and collectors that closed on March 30, the AP reported.
The piece, an act of protest against China’s pollution problem, was offered up by Beijing artist Liang Kegang, who brought the Provence air home with him from a business trip.
“Air should be the most valueless commodity, free to breathe for any vagrant or beggar,” Liang said. “This is my way to question China’s foul air and express my dissatisfaction.”
Liang isn’t the only artist to protest poor air quality in China, a country where air pollution regularly rises to levels deemed unsafe by the World Health Organization. In February, 20 Beijing artists, in an act of protest, wore dust masks and faked their own deaths in front of an altar at the capital city’s Temple of Heaven park.
While Liang’s expensive jar of air was a symbolic gesture, the fresh air idea has taken off. Local tourism authorities in central Henan province handed out bags of clean mountain air recently to promote a resort.
“Canned air will force us to stay committed to environmental protection,” provincial tourism director Fu Yingchun said recently.