Jeff Koons Balloons - 12 million quids worth?

Well I'm blowed. There I was at my favourite London haunt, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, waiting for a media training client. I looked out of the window and saw what looked like an enormous balloon sculpture in the middle of St James's Square. On closer inspection, that's exactly what it was, in gleaming cerise-coloured metal. There was even a man polishing it, and two security guards in attendance.

Apparently it's the latest work by Jeff Koons, and is due to be auctioned for a sum not undajacent to 12 million pounds (about a squillion dollars). That's a tidy sum in any language. Actually, I rather liked it, and the groups of picnicking office workers around it in the lunchtime sun seemed to approve of it too. That's what public art should be all about. Nice one, Jeff.