German artist’s 18-K gold bagel avocado toast is for sale at Art Miami for $2.9M

MIAMI – Tim Bengel used a three-dimensional scanner and printer to create the 18-karat gold sculpture of a bagel avocado toast that recently caught the eye of singer Joe Jonas.

Galerie Rother, an art gallery from Wiesbaden, Germany, has the sculpture on display at a booth in Art Miami, a satellite fair north of Pérez Art Museum Miami. It’s about 5 inches wide and it is valued at $2.9 million.

Bengel, a German artist from Stuttgart, scanned the 27 pieces of his sandwich: A real sliced pumpkin bagel, 10 leaves of arugula, and five slices each of avocado, tomato, and onions.

Bengel, 29, then printed the 3-D molds and used about $354,000 in liquid gold to create “Who Wants to Live Forever?” to protest the true cost of the millennial’s demand for avocado.

Bengel’s bagel avocado toast first made headlines around the world when the gallery took it to Berlin Art Week in September and it was valued at $2.95 million.

Art Miami is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday at One Herald Plaza, east of the intersection of North Bayshore Drive and Northeast 14th Street.

Day tickets are $55 for anyone aged 12 or older and $35 for students and seniors. The multiple-day ticket is $100 and the VIP ticket is $275. For more information, visit the fair’s site.

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About the Authors

In January 2017, Hatzel Vela became the first local television journalist in the country to move to Cuba and cover the island from the inside. During his time living and working in Cuba, he covered some of the most significant stories in a post-Fidel Castro Cuba. 

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.

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