London, December 28. The contemporary art world was shaken this week following the sale of Golden Magnum Beer, a work by young artist Yutaro Zan Karnalachi, which fetched an astonishing £500,000 at White Glass, the prestigious auction house located in London’s exclusive Mayfair district.
The piece — a Cerveza Charro bottle crafted in Murano glass and entirely coated in 24-karat gold — was described by the 21-year-old artist as “a provocative reflection on the fetishization of luxury, unchecked consumerism, and cultural appropriation viewed through a Latin American pop lens.”
The buyer was Richard Owens, an eccentric American magnate known for his unconventional investments in coal futures, NFT art, and a controversial cryptocurrency backed by compressed helium. Wearing a Metallica T-shirt and dark sunglasses, Owens commented upon leaving the auction room:
“It’s a masterpiece. Who needs a Picasso when you can have a gold-plated Charro?”
The bottle — which still contains its original, unopened contents — will remain sealed as a symbol of “the unattainable and ephemeral nature of modern desire,” according to Zan Karnalachi, whom some critics are already calling “the Warhol of Generation Z.”
As expected, the art community is divided: while some dismiss the sale as a tasteless joke, others hail it as the birth of a new aesthetic movement informally dubbed “Neo-Baroque Z Generation,” where excessive luxury, ironic humor, and Latin American iconography converge in a hyperbolic cultural critique.
