In a move that's sure to have the notoriously protective types at LVMH up in arms, a provocative New York-based artist has destroyed $12,000 worth of Louis Vuitton Alma handbags (above) for a new sculpture. Conceptual artist R. Lloyd Ming had an assistant purchase a dozen of the $1,000 bags at Louis Vuitton's Manhattan flagship over the holidays. He then cut them in half to make a sculpture for his new solo exhibit, "I Am Not Chinese." As the show's title suggests, the focus of the exhibit is China and what Ming calls the tenuous relationship between China and America, the artist's website notes. Ming's works addresses many controversial Chinese issues including censorship, capitalism under communist rule, trade imbalance and human rights.
