Other

Use of the cargo capacity of the An124 is not limited to industrial and similar practical ventures.

The artwork, Balloon Flower (Magenta), by the American artist Jeff Koons was recently auctioned by Christies in London. While the picture shows it apparently floating on a pond in the garden of it's previous owners in Dallas, Texas, it was in fact supported on a concrete plinth hidden below the water. Weighing more than 8 tons it needed to be.

But how to move such a thing to London for auction? Properly protected in it's own special wood and steel crate the sculpture package measured 437 by 318 by 361 centimetres.

Not only would this not fit in a B747 freighter aircraft for the transatlantic trip but neither could it be persuaded into the auction venue at Christie's elegant headquarters in St James's.

So it's journey began from a Dallas garden by a ten-wheel flatbed truck with twin exhausts painted a matching magenta for the occasion. Driven to Savannah airport where it was loaded into the only airplane capable of dealing with the task, a chartered Antonov 124.

The Antonov delivered the consignment not to London but to Geneva where another flatbed truck took the sculpture to it's birthplace at a foundry in Germany for a polish to make it look its best.

From Germany the sculpture was trucked through Belgium and France, before arriving in London where a crane lifted over the railings of St James's Square for display and viewing prior to the auction.

As in Dallas, the substantial support structure was hidden from view in this case being buried beneath the grass.

Rather like the transport infrastructure that made the whole transfer possible, nothing is quite what it seems without the backroom boys doing the heavy lifting out of sight.