The ''Butterfly Trek Madone'', an artwork utilizing a bicycle by

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

, became the world's most expensive bicycle when it was bought at

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

for $500,000. It was designed by Hirst, who used real butterfly wings that were placed onto the actual frame and wheels of the bicycle. The bike had been ridden by

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong ('' né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005 after recovering fr ...

in the

2009 Tour de France The 2009 Tour de France was the 96th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on 4 July in the principality of Monaco with a individual time trial which included a section of the Circuit de Monaco. The race visite ...

About

The ''Butterfly Trek Madone'' currently holds the title of the most expensive bike sold in the world. The second most expensive bike ever sold was the Trek Yoshitomo Nara Speed Concept that was sold for $200,000. Since the ''Butterfly Trek Madone'' utilized the beauty of natural wings taken from butterflies, it was predicted that PETA was highly opposed to this art piece. There were also animal rights activists that called Hirst's bike art "barbaric." The original release of the bike was in July 2009 before the actual auction. The original concept was in honor of Lance Armstrong's return to cycling.

Auction

''Butterfly Trek Madone'' was auctioned at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

for the

Livestrong Foundation The Livestrong Foundation is a United States nonprofit organization that provides support for people affected by cancer. The foundation, based in Austin, Texas, was established in 1997 by cancer survivor and former professional road racing cycl ...

. Armstrong's excitement was evident on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

when he tweeted during the auction that the bike had gone "for 500,000.00!!! Half a million bucks!!!" The event that the ''Butterfly Trek Madone'' was being presented at was the "It's About the Bike" auction held on 1 November 2009 in New York City. The auction was held to raise money and benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation's cancer research, awareness, and advocacy. At the auction a total of $1.25 million that was raised. There were about 20 renowned artists that were asked to utilize their expertise to create unique artwork to be showcased and ultimately auctioned off. It ended up being Hirst's ''Butterfly Trek Madone'' that sold for $500,000.00.

References

Lance Armstrong Works by Damien Hirst 2009 Tour de France Road cycles Bicycles in art {{cycling-stub