Chicken Bone Chairs

At the Metro Show in New York City this past winter, tiny chairs made of chicken bones were selling for $18,000 each—and they all sold. The chairs were made by artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1918-1983), a self-taught artist from Milwaukee who painted, sculpted and took photographs. In the 1960s and ’70s he soaked chicken and turkey bones in ammonia, dried them and glued them together to make structures. His bone towers reached up to 5 feet tall. Chairs were colored in gold and metallic.