Mark Zuckerberg Designed a Statue of His Wife Because That’s What the Romans Did
"Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife."
Published Jan. 8 2025, 2:57 p.m. ET
If you have a ton of money, it stands to reason that you might run out of things to spend it on. At that point, you have to shift into some very weird categories. For example, billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen bought a preserved 14-foot tiger shark in 2004. This contemporary piece of art was designed by Damien Hirst in 1992. Speaking of the 1990s, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer built an exact replica of the Titanic called the Titanic II.
Then we have Mark Zuckerberg, who reportedly bought a 1,400-acre plot of land in Kauai, Hawaii in order to allegedly build some sort of survivalist compound. Before you ask, yes, there will be an underground bunker. That's not all the Facebook founder has spent his money on. In August 2024 he designed a statue of his wife, which could cause problems if it ends up in a Night at the Museum scenario. Why did he do this? Here's what we know.
Mark Zuckerberg's wife is now a statue.
In an Instagram post dated Aug. 13, 2024, Mark uploaded a picture of his wife sipping from a mug in front of her own statue. The statue itself is a shocking shade of teal that matches the color of Priscilla Chan's cup. This figure appears to be adorned in a silver tunic that is billowing behind her as if wind is blowing through it. The effect also makes it look as if the effigy of Priscilla has wings.
The caption below reads, "Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife." Mark also tagged its creator, visual artist Daniel Arsham. Priscilla also commented, "The more of me the better?" followed by a heart emoji. According to Artnet News, a month before the unveiling, Arsham was accused of union busting by several of his employees.
According to documents obtained by the outlet, "Workers have been seeking to organize under the Local 338 Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union and United Food & Commercial Workers Union." In October 2023, Arsham's studio allegedly forced employees to attend a mandatory meeting at his Long Island City facility where he threatened stricter enforcement of existing rules and said he would fire anyone attempting to unionize.
People in the comments loved the statue of Mark Zuckerberg's wife.
It's safe to assume no one commenting under Mark's post knew anything about Arsham's legal issues. Gayle King had the best reply out of all of them. She asked if there was a backstory or if this was just a regular night at the Zuckerberg/Chan house. The television personality also jokingly said, "P.S., do you have an older brother who is black I could meet? Asking for a friend."
The Architecture & Design Instagram account praised Arsham's work, which most people agreed with. Several people replied that this kind of gesture was definitely couple goals for them while at least one person commented that it was a pretty standard move for a billionaire. By the way, for their anniversary in November 2024, Mark collaborated with T-Pain for an updated version of his song "Get Low," which was playing when he first met Priscilla. Money really can buy you happiness.