Jonathan Monk often bases his work on the reinterpretation of pre-existing works, demonstrating a particular affinity for the sixties and seventies. Monk has raised the citation to the level of art to such an extent that one could liken his art to a history of art.

With Diecimila, the artist adopts a more radical stance by purely and simply appropriating Chris Burden’s eponymous work of 1977. The work Diecimila consists of a double-sided facsimile of an Italian 10,000 lire banknote. It is, in a way, a fake banknote (and a real work of art), signed by the artist Chris Burden.

Monk replaces Burden here, and goes so far as to imperil the notion of the ownership of the work, duplicating also his predecessor’s signature. The edition of 35 copies is similarly repeated. Even the multiplication is reproduced: pure tautology.

A banknote as an art object leads naturally, and literally, to the question of the value of art, a fluctuating notion if ever there was one. No longer in circulation, the Italian 10,000 lire note to which Burden referred in 1977 has since lost its exchange value to acquire that of a collector’s item.