Canadian satirical artist Margaret Sutherland has sold her huge painting of a nude Stephen Harper for $ 5,000, exactly the amount she was asking.
She could easily have sold it for five times that much.
But Sutherland wasn't in it for the money, which is why she refuses to say who bought it.
Could it be a friend of Harper's, or his wife Laureen Teskey? Or heaven forbid, a rich Liberal (if there are still any around) who plans to use it in the next election.
Coulld it be destined to end up on Harper's new plastic paper money?
The story of Canada's naked prime minister, penis in view, created a lot of noise in Canada and toured the world, even making it on CNN.
There was interest as far as South Africa where someone who painted the prime minister Jacob Kuma, without any more clothes, is now facing prosecution.
Sutherland entitled her satirical work, Emperor Haute Couture (because anyone can see the emperor has no clothes.) It shows Harper on a chaise longue with Sutherland's dog Bayla. He is surrounded by several men in suits and a woman offering him a Tim Hortons coffee. (Read satire!)
Sutherland was inspired by Edouard Manet's 1863 work, Olympia, where a naked woman stretched out on a longue chair is being served by a black woman.
Sutherland said it is all intended as political and social satire, and that Canadians will easily understand the links, including Harper's attitude towards the arts.
A radio reporter asked Sutherland that she thought when it came to painting the private parts of the Prime Minister.
"Ah, nothing there" she laughed, without explanation.
