Americans for the Arts' Artist Committee member and American artist, Jeff Koons, helps push forward public charity in the arts world with his $4million dollar piece, auctioned off by Project Perpetual on Nov. 9. The piece, based on Picasso’s La Soupe and titled Gazing Ball (Charity), stands six feet tall and is slung with donated Hermès handbags. 

According to Paris-based art collector Svetlana Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya, who organised the event via her art-charity hookup Project Perpetual, artists are more socially active and willing to participate than ever. “I offer different concepts to artists so they can create within the context of charity,” she says. “The money itself does not create the context.”