George Zimmerman Painting Purchased by the Guggenheim

NEW YORK – Calling it a “work of monumental importance,” New York’s Guggenheim Museum today announced that the foundation had purchased a painting created by acquitted killer George Zimmerman. Nancy Specter, deputy director and chief curator for the Guggenheim, said that the painting will soon be featured at the Museum “alongside the greatest works of art in the world,” where it will “remind visitors that the world is often cruel and unfair, as well as make the other pieces look even better by comparison.”

Specter, who has worked with the museum for over 20 years, said that she has never come across a painting quite like Zimmerman’s. “Formally, it’s garbage,” Specter said, and noted that it may have been copied from a stock photo. “It’s just an ugly, amateurish piece of crap. But because Zimmerman painted it, this work speaks volumes.”

Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for The New Yorker, agreed with Spector. “This painting makes me weep when I see it,” Schjeldahl said. “It reminds me that, in our world, a man can kill an unarmed teenager and somehow still be out there, walking around free, painting dumb pictures. It’s tragic—and therefore quite beautiful.”

The painting, titled “America,” was recently up for auction on eBay, and was attracting bids as high as $100,000. In the painting’s description, Zimmerman—who earlier this year was acquitted of murder charges in the death of teenager Trayvon Martin—wrote that painting “allows [him] to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows [him] to remain indoors.”

Robert Zimmerman, George’s brother, confirmed that the auction and painting were both real, and said he “hopes George keeps on painting instead of threatening, beating, or killing children, which have been his main hobbies up until now.”

The Guggenheim plans to hang the painting, which features an all-blue American flag and phrases from the Pledge of Allegiance, in the Ronald O. Perelman Rotunda, where viewers “won’t be able to miss it.”

“We want all visitors to the Guggenheim to see this piece,” Spector explained. “Ideally, they will stop in their tracks, gaze upon ‘America,’ and think, ‘Boy, this country is really messed up.’”