Much to the chagrin of broke millennials, there is apparently no ceiling to the rising cost of avocado toast these days.
So far, Tim Bengel, a German contemporary artist, may be the only one to have actually created an avocado dish well worth its weight in gold: a solid gold pumpkin-seeded bagel with arugula, sliced tomato, onion and, the main attraction and raison d’être, avocado.
The sculptural sandwich has been appraised at $3 million, comprised of 27 individual parts that amount to 12 pounds of 18-karat gold. Just one of the auspicious avocado slices upon the shining stack costs an estimated $14,000, according to the artist.
Rightfully, Bengel refers to the stuff as “Green Gold.”
The piece, titled “Who Wants To Live Forever?,” is currently showing at a pro-avocado establishment dubbed the Avocado Club during Berlin Art Week through Sept. 19.
He shared a video montage on Instagram that reveals the 3-D design and printing process required to fabricate such detailed metalwork.
“For me, the avocado is one of the symbols of the Millennial generation. And I want to capture the Zeitgeist in this work,” the subtitles read. More than 1.2 million have watched the video on the platform since Wednesday.
According to market statistics, demand for avocado here in the US multiplied sixfold to over 2.6 billion pounds last year. A 2017 global housing index, set against the price of avocados, estimated that it would take savings just shy of 7,000 avocado toasts to afford a modest home in Berlin, with each serving priced at $9. The data is even more staggering in New York City, where consumers would need to cut out more than 12,000 avocado toasts, priced at an average of $10 each, to buy a modest apartment.
But who needs a property investment when you can blow your nest egg on the most prized token of a generation?
Those who seek the holy grail of avocado obsession may inquire with Galerie Rother in Wiesbaden.
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