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Who is Kongthin Pearlmich?

Razia Iqbal | 17:59 UK time, Friday, 19 September 2008

has set me on a trail to discover more about an artist called Kongthin Pearlmich, if indeed there is anything to discover.

Apparently, a 15-foot-high triptych, by Kongthin Pearlmich, which weighs a total of three tons, and which went on display this week in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, is being offered to Canterbury Cathedral. The story carried a photograph of the work, entitled The Man Delusion. Little though is known about the artist, who apparently sells only to a handful of private clients.

In this work of three panels, each a sculpture of Christ on the cross, the central figure is holding pearls; diamonds hang off his feet, and rubies on his chest. Four of these triptychs exist, one of which has been offered to the Vatican and another has gone to a private collector, reputedly sold for nearly £70 million.

Mr Pearlmich is a recluse. The art world is not huge, so come on, who is this man, and why have we not heard of him before now?

There is , but it has restricted access to existing clients and patrons of Mr Pearlmich. I have requested entry to the site and await a reply. Any information on him would be very welcome.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I think it's extremely unlikely that it's anything other than a hoax. Do a quick search for the Artist's name on Wikipedia[*] then click on the 'history' tab at the top of the page. Wikipedia will present a page that details when the entry for Kongthin Pearlmich was created, and who has been editing it. Note that the entry was created on the 19th of September and all of the information was created by 1 user.

    You also might be able to find out more information about the website by doing a Google search for 'site:kongthinart.com'. There do appear to have been some other pages on the site before the login page was created (quotes, poems etc.) Try accessing the Google caches for the pages.

    [*] Yeah, yeah, I know Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable of sources of information, but for an established artist you'd atleast expect a page thats been around for a while and been written (possibly inaccurately) by more than one person.)

  • Comment number 2.

    In the olden days of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2, one of Steve Wright's jingles would bellow "Made Up Name!" during entertainment 'news' of dubious provenance.

    The only real question here - I think - has to be what this is an anagram of..? (And having sat thru 'The DaVinci Code' bored witless, I refuse to expend any energy solving this.)

    Love the new blog, Razia. More please...

  • Comment number 3.

    I ran "Kongthin Pearlmich" through several basic (Delia) Bacon Ciphers and obtained the result "baD aRt pranK". Is there a prize?

  • Comment number 4.

    This is a very curious story...and why would Kongthin Pearlmich make art that looks like its by Damien Hirst?...I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think this has to be D. Hirst having a bit of fun with his millions...?

  • Comment number 5.

    Well I was a bit bored so I went to my favourite search engine.

    Neither part of the artist's name appears to be an actual name, though both can be found as usernames (composite words or inventions) on some Asian web pages.

    Youtube account holder "Kongthinart" uploaded a video called "Kongthinart trailer" this afternoon. When I saw it 20 minutes ago it had received 2 views, had badly out of synch sound, and consisted of pieces on display at King's along with some vox pop first impressions from tourists. It was fairly lame, although the art works were pleasing to the eye. The video has since been removed.

    According to the Telegraph piece the artist is represented by somebody called "Michael Leyton" who works for a non-existent law firm.

    There is an artist called Michael Leyton, at least according to web sources. He is a Cognitive Psychology professor, also a theorist on art, music, mathematics, and shape. . "Besides his scientific and mathematical work, he is also a highly exhibited painter and sculptor".

    I find his art works reasonably interesting. Some are inspired by his recent 'intense religious experiences' . . Others are rather soulless and computer-generated. More here: .

  • Comment number 6.

    Mr Konthin has fixed his audio-synch problems and re-posted his video to youtube: .

    Views so far... 3

  • Comment number 7.

    I have just been on the website, (its open now) there seems to be a plethora of information/pics on there. I don't have time to check it all out, I will when I get back. very interesting though.

  • Comment number 8.

    Let’s just analyse the situation here. This artist has produced a ‘Triptych’ that is of a grand scale and adorned with rubies, diamonds and pearls. Has anyone actually noted whether these stones are real or if they are just cut glass? Being such a large work of art, if these gems were truly real, they would have to be of considerable value, would they not? If this was just a hoax, why would someone go to such great effort and considerable expense to produce something of such grandeur? What would he/she get back from it in return?
    Oh, and just on a personal note… I haven’t done much research into the artist, but hoax or not, I think that the triptych work is refreshing and I am very much looking forward to seeing where this artistic adventure continues.
    In response to the comment posted by Mattutopia, perhaps you may be onto something about Damien Hirst having a bit of fun. He’s such an arrogant little man who shows such belligerence to the art world and this kind of stunt would be precisely the sort of thing that he would do! (I’m sorry; If you hadn’t guessed, I’m not a great fan of Damien Hirst)

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