On Saturday, at Sean Penn's Help Haiti Home gala fundraising auction, CNN's Anderson Cooper paid $1.4 million on a work of art from American artist Jeff Koons.
As amazing as it might seem, although the as-yet unmade piece will be created using Penn's collection of old firearms, Cooper's outspoken anti-gun colleague Piers Morgan was actually second in the bidding offering $1.3 million.
As People magazine reported Sunday, it was a star-studded event featuring the likes of Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Michael Douglas, Emma Thompson, and Kevin Bacon.
Besides the Koons piece, up for sale at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills was a $200,000 day with former President Bill Clinton.
Yes, you read that right.
But the featured event was an original Koons piece which according to People "will be created using Penn's collection of old firearms."
Yes, the anti-gun Morgan actually bid $1.3 million for a work of art to be created out of guns.
I guess he missed the obvious hypocrisy on display.
And yes, this was all for charity.
However, Koons's work is highly sought after in the art world, and has yielded tremendous investment returns.
Just last November, his “Balloon Dog (Orange)” sold at Christie's for $58.4 million becoming the most expensive work ever sold by a living artist at auction.
So don't think philanthropy was solely on the minds of Cooper and Morgan as they fought over this prize with more money than most people will make in their lifetimes.
(Keep that in mind the next time either of these CNN hosts rails against the "one percent" and points fingers at conservatives opposed for economic and budget reasons to extending unemployment benefits or raising the minimum wage.)
In fact, this was such a lavish expense that Cooper told the audience his boyfriend said, "Are you f--king kidding!?" when he notified him by text of the purchase.
But Benjamin Maisani really shouldn't worry, for this represented a pittance of Cooper's estimated $100 million net worth. Cooper is also the heir to mom Gloria Vanderbilt's $200 million fortune.
On the other hand, $1.3 million would have represented a decent percentage of Morgan's $20 million estate.
And for a piece of art made of the very thing he's been using his program to advocate against for well over a year.
Makes sense, doesn't it?
