'Rubik Mona Lisa' sells for €480k smashing previous Invader record

The French street artist Invader’s interpretation of the Mona Lisa made of 330 Rubik’s Cubes sold for €480,200 Sunday well above presale estimates of up to €150,000, the auction house Artcurial said.

Rubik Mona Lisa, 2005 RubikCubism - 'Rubik Masterpiece' series Assemblage of Rubik’s cubes forming a pixelated transposition of La Gioconda/Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Artcurial/Invader

The street artist returned to Artcurial, after the Parisian auction house set a world record last May with his mosaic Vienna, which sold for €356,200.

As Paris celebrates got ready to sunset the Leonardo da Vinci expo at the Louvre Museum, Artcurial unveiled Rubik Mona Lisa (2005, a modern take on the world’s most famous painting.

Invader’s Mona Lisa is made up of 330 Rubik’s Cubes, the iconic little puzzles from the 80s, and was expected to sell for between €120,000 and €150,000.

Invader rose to prominence with his viral invasions, which have infiltrated the streets of more than 79 cities around the world. The French artist signed off on 2019 by staging his largest urban installation to date, a 70m2 mosaic Space Invader very close to the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Invader and 'Rubikcubism'

Fascinated by the endless possibilities presented by mosaics and pixels, in 2004 Invader began exploring a new creative medium for his art: Rubik’s Cubes.

During an experimental phase, Invader reinterpreted da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, creating ubik Mona Lisa, which became the first in a series of artworks called “Rubik Master Pieces”, revisiting the greatest paintings in the history of art.

Amongst the most standout pieces are Rubik Jacquet which represents Déjeuner sur l’Herbe by Alain Jacquet, created in 2007, and Rubik Origine (2007), which depicts Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde.