Sound Off: $1.5M Rock Transport -- Object d'Art or Object d'umb?

Here at uShip, we’re all for movin’ stuff.  But every once in a while something comes along that, well, maybe shouldn’t be moved.  The reasons run the gambit, including "just plain stupid" like the one we came across today and that's been buzzing recently.   

Here's the situation:  A 340-ton, 21-feet high, 16-feet wide boulder of pure granite in Riverside, Calif., east of Los Angeles, is getting moved to the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) to become an art installation called the Levitated Mass.  While the hunk of earth was purchased for $120,000 – not bad considering the cost of California real estate – the price tag to move the monolith is expected to top $1.5 million.  That's about $25,000 a mile if you are a service provider keeping score at home.       

Apparently, a 200-foot long, 200-tire trailer is going to be assembled around the mass.  One semi-trailer will push, another will pull.  “They'll go about eight miles an hour. It will take eight days to get there. They'll do it all at night, and take surface streets the entire way. It will be quite an undertaking,” according to Stephen Vanderhart of Stone Valley Materials.

It certainly will be an undertaking.  But the real question is:  IS THIS WORTH IT? 

With millions going hungry in the U.S. every day and millions of others struggling with homelessness or simply keeping the lights on, could this money being used to ship a pet rock go elsewhere for a greater cause?  Or is this truly art, and the right of Earth artist Michael Heizer to make this piece of rock a piece de resistance? 

Opinions certainly differ on this topic.  Tell us what you think.