21 / Art & Design 
30 September 2020
Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, LEGO Buffet - Image 1 of 3
Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, LEGO Buffet - Image 2 of 3
Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, LEGO Buffet - Image 3 of 3
21 / Art & Design 
Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, LEGO Buffet - Image 1 of 3
Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, LEGO Buffet - Image 2 of 3
Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, LEGO Buffet - Image 3 of 3
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Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda

LEGO Buffet

Droog
The Netherlands, 2010
Lego bricks 41 h × 78½ w × 17½ d in (104 × 199 × 44 cm)
estimate: $10,000–15,000
result: $20,000
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Cabinet features four drawers and two doors concealing one non-adjustable shelf. This work is unique.
provenance: The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas | Heritage, 20th & 21st Century Design Auction, 23 April 2014, Lot 62113 | Private Collection
exhibited: Art Basel, Switzerland, 2010 | Art Basel Miami, 2011 | Droog Gallery, New York, 2011 | The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, 2012 | The Bauhaus #itsalldesign, 26 September 2015 – 28 February 2016, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany (exhibition traveled to Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany, 1 April – 14 August 2016, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, 15 October 2016 – 7 January 2017, Musée de design et d'arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland, 20 September 2018 – 6 January 2019, Design Museum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark, 14 March – 1 December 2019)

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Serious Play

Minale-Maeda's LEGO Buffet

The present lot installed in The Bauhaus #itsalldesign exhibition at the Musée de design et d'arts appliqués contemporains (Mudac), Lausanne, Switzerland. Image: Mudac

Composed of over 26,000 Lego bricks, this buffet is a reinterpretation of Gerrit Rietveld’s iconic Elling cabinet designed in 1919. The original example, executed in oak, was acquired by architect Piet Elling and later destroyed in a fire. 

The Minale-Maeda LEGO Buffet is made entirely of the plastic bricks after the original piece, transforming the revered form into a playful statement on do-it-yourself design, or as the artists describe, "Using toys to make real furniture for grown-ups". 

By agreement with the Rietveld Estate, only one example was produced from the planned edition of five. The present lot is unique. 

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