Flavorwire

No, this is not a joke. Bloomberg reports that Bubbles — Michael Jackson’s beloved companion and fellow moonwalker — is showing at Art Basel Miami. The 29-year-old chimp has “two moody abstracts” featured in Endangered, an exhibition at the Miami Club Rum Distillery benefiting the ape sanctuary where he lives. The asking price? $1,500 a piece. That might sound steep, but it costs $20,000 a year to care for Bubbles, who, while claimed by Jackson’s estate, was not included in the pop star’s will. “He’s had a really tough time,” according to Center for Great Apes’ communications coordinator Casey Taylor. “He didn’t know how to be a chimp. There’s a serious social structure with these animals — you have to know the chimp rules. He mentally shut down.” It would be really wrong to make a tortured artist joke here, right?