"The dirtiest cup"

The artist Andrei Molodkin (Russia, 1966) has created a replica of the World Cup with oil brought from Qatar to denounce corruption in the choice of the Gulf country as the host o the 2022 World Cup. The work, entitled 'The dirtiest cup', is an exact reproduction of the trophy designed in 1971 by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga but made with Qatari oil instead of gold. “The World Cup is an icon of an empty victory. Because the only victory that the petrocracies understand is that of blood and oil’, denounces Molodkin, a resident of France for two decades.

The artist accepted the challenge presented by Líbero magazine to create a work of art that denounced the kidnapping of the World Cup by the oil powers through bribes, as revealed by the FBI in 2015 during an investigation that resulted in the arrest of most of the 24 FIFA executives who chose Russia and Qatar in 2010 or the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The investigation, led by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, detailed that the estimated bribe payment was 150 millions dollars. And that is the symbolic price that Molodkin has put on his new work and the starting price when it goes for auction on the Apolitical online art platform. The sculpture is the cover of the next edition of Líbero magazine dedicated to the dirtiest World Cups in history. The new edition, available on newsstands and on revistalibero.com from November 14, analyzes with features and interviews the main controversies of FIFA's host choices throughout history.

The work has been created in Molodkin's workshop in Maubourget (France) where Líbero has filmed and photographed the manufacturing process. The dirtiest Cup is made with methacrylate, wax and petroleum from Qatar,certified by the Institut Français du Pétrole with which the artist collaborates.