Photo illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images, @zuck/Instagram
Everyone loves a man who loves his wife when it’s Doug Emhoff supporting Kamala Harris in the election, but when Mark Zuckerberg builds a giant blue statue of his wife in his yard, is that suddenly weird? Oh well.
On Tuesday, Meta’s CEO shared a photo of his new artwork—a statue of a turquoise Priscilla Chan draped in silver—on Instagram, captioning it, “Reviving the Roman tradition of making sculptures of one’s wife.” Zuck and I disagree on many points, but I think he’s right on this one.
Per Forbes, Zuckerberg has a net worth of $184.2 billion. And what else is there to spend that kind of money on? He’s already started collecting gold chains, learned to wake surf, and become a semi-professional fighter. It was about time he invested some of his money and energy into commissioning a giant statue of his wife from an Instagram-famous sculptor (Daniel Arsham, to be precise). Plus, I think it’s a beautiful shade of blue. And I like the silver – sue me!
Some people find this embarrassing. “This is the most billionaire thing you could ever do,” wrote one commenter. One of my esteemed colleagues said she thinks “wealth is wasted on the rich.” I’m generally with her – but not in this case. I tend to agree with Gayle King, who wrote, “Wow! … is there a backstory here or was it just Tuesday night at your house?? PS: do you have an older black brother I could meet… ask for a friend.” You don’t get a statue of yourself in your yard without asking for what you want.
