Trash becomes culture again

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Curse and Coffee friends,

Today, we explore old rope as a piece of art.

Hit reply and let us know what you think (we read all of your kind words).

Coffee at the ready…

The take: A British artist is selling 10 tonnes of old rope for £1 million. Yes, rope. The kind you tie boats with.

What happened: On 13 November 2025, British artist David Shrigley unveiled "Exhibition of Old Rope" at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. Four giant piles of reclaimed rope. Total weight: 10 tonnes. Total price: £1 million.

Why it matters: Someone will probably buy it. Because contemporary art stopped being about beauty or skill decades ago. Now it's about who can sell the most ridiculous concept with the straightest face.

What to watch: Whether a collector actually bites before the show closes on 20 December 2025. If it sells, we've officially reached the point where "art" is just expensive trash with good marketing. If it doesn't sell, Shrigley gets to say "I told you it was old rope" and call that the real artwork.

Either way, he wins.

The material is old rope. But the price tag isn’t.

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The timing is perfect.

Within months of Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana selling for $6.2 million at Sotheby's in November 2024, Shrigley presents literal garbage at seven figures.

Meanwhile, the broader art market is tanking.

Contemporary art sales at auction declined 36% in 2024 to their lowest point in six years. Buyers shifted focus from emerging artists to "tried-and-tested names," according to Art Basel's economist Clare McAndrew.

Translation: when money gets tight, people stop gambling on unknowns and buy the blue chips.

Except Shrigley's rope isn't a blue chip. It's maritime waste.

Galleries struggling with 10% cost inflation are now showcasing work that openly mocks the value systems keeping them alive.

The irony is obvious. The business model is questionable.

If someone buys the rope, they prove Shrigley's point about market absurdity while simultaneously undermining it.

If nobody buys it, Shrigley gets to say "told you it was old rope" and call that the real artwork.

And one more thing: the rope is an unrecyclable synthetic material contributing to 640,000 tonnes of marine waste annually.

So, Shrigley's solution to environmental pollution?

Turn it into expensive art and make it someone else's storage problem.

Genius or grift?

Probably both.

Pro: Conceptual art that interrogates value systems deserves museum space and serious critical engagement, primarily work with an environmental subtext that addresses waste and recycling.

Con: Galleries announcing "huge losses" shouldn't platform artists mocking the commercial gallery system. It's a performative critique funded by the problem it claims to expose.

Our read: Shrigley gets paid either way. The joke lands whether collectors buy the rope or prove his point by ignoring it.

Environmental Impact Agency: Fishing Gear Report

Documents indicate that at least 640,000 tonnes of discarded fishing gear and rope enter oceans annually, accounting for 10% of global marine plastic pollution. Shrigley's rope is this waste stream reframed as a £1M asset.

“10 tonnes of old rope priced at £1 million” — [The Independent]

Sotheby's: Cattelan's Banana Sells for $6.2M — Why: Shows the market precedent for seven-figure conceptual stunts one year before Shrigley's rope debut. [Report]

CNN: Global Art Sales Plummeted 12% in 2024 — Why: Context on why Shrigley's provocation lands during market contraction with "lack of curiosity among clients". [Analysis]

WWF: Ghost Fishing Gear — Why: Explains the environmental cost of synthetic rope and marine waste that Shrigley's work inadvertently highlights. [Report]

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