Tucano
Unknown artist, 1990 c.
An object in a museum case, he wrote, must suffer the de-naturated existence of an animal in the zoo. In any museum the object dies — of suffocation and the public gaze — whereas private ownership confers on the owner the right and the need to touch.
Bruce Chatwin, Utz.
“It’s an unsigned piece I found in a flea market. I’m not even sure if it was produced in Murano, but its complex technique immediately impressed me: the multicolored glass canes that compose the feathers evoke an exotic atmosphere, and the toucan’s beak, too, is beautifully shaped. It immediately triggered my imagination, [it made me] wonder what inspired the glass master — undoubtedly talented: Were they following a mental image or a drawing?”
— Pierre Rosenberg, the collector.
