Museum of Capitalism ID 1957-4-text

The location
This museum must of course be situated in London, UK, the heart of the financial world.
Near the Millenium Dome in North Greenwich there is the frame of an old gasholder that is a perfect structure for this edifice: it has always contained something that is like money: gas, invisible, untouchable and nevertheless very dangerous.

The Building
Within this steel structure (also a sign of industrial revolution where capitalism all started with) there wil be a pyramid of 13 floors, like there is on a one dollar bill, executed in steel and dollar-green glass that suggests transparancy but in fact is totally opaque from the outside. Above the entrance there leads a very steep stair upwards that refers to Aztec temples where human sacrificies took place.
On top of this truncated pyramid in stead of the eye of God there is the money-warehouse of Disney’s Scrooge Duck. On the top edge of the gasholder structure the words NOVUS ORDO PECULIUM, a motto that, in a slightly different way, is on a dollarbill and means something like “new capital order”. The gasholder structure is also perfect to be used as a giant billboard for all sorts of advertisement. The construction of the pyramid itself is so complex that even the engineers themselves that calculated it didn’t understand it afterwards. So no one can tell how long it wil hold.

The Building inside
From the parking in front of the building, already impressed by the enormous billboaords, you step in the circular structure of the gasholder and than through one of the 12 entrance doors into the pyramid. First you come in the reception space where you can find information about the museum and are confronted with the first excesses of capitalism.
On the right of the entrance hall a steep stair leeds down to the “Hall of Shame”, accessible only for bankers. From the ground floor many escalators lead to the next 12 floors where the museum functions are mixed with shops where goods are sold that most people can’t afford but teases them beyond the limits of self-control. In the middle of the pyramid there is a huge atrium through all 13 floors. In it the elevators who connect these floors and give access to an empty Scrooge Duck’s money warehouse which has a transparent glass floor so you look down some 45 meters down into nothing. The rest of the traffic inside the building goes through many shortcuts and sideways and other dark routes.

Proposed exhibitions
AYN RAND The virtue of selfishness
The life and Times of BERNIE MADOFF
Capitalism and priceless art
MONEY and how it’s made
The end of capitalism THANK GOD

To end with a quote of Alan Greenspan:
“ I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”