Take a look at the first five photographs below and then have a quick guess as to the materials used to create the beautiful green sections of the room's ceiling. If you fancy taking a guess, scroll down slowly so as not to see the spoiler picture.

Image Credit: Angelos.be

Image Credit: Angelos.be

Image Credit: Angelos.be

Image Credit: Angelos.be

Image Credit: Sculpture.org

Any ideas? Scroll down for the answer...

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Image Credit: Wikipedia

Yep, beetles, 1.6 million of them. Or Buprestidae to be precise; a family of the insect which are more commonly known as Jewel Beetles.

This incredible ceiling art - known as Heaven Of Delight - can be found at the Royal Palace in Brussels and was the brainchild of controversial Flemish artist Jan Fabre, a man renowned for working with strange media including blood, sperm and all manner of insects. Apparently it took Fabre's team of around 30 people 4 months just to glue the beetle shells to the ceiling.

To read an interview with the artist, go here.

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i love it

devtron

So let me get this straight- a so called artist gets fame for gluing 1.6 million dead beetles to a ceiling? Will I get rich and famous by gluing 1.6 million dead so-called artists from a ceiling?
Thanks for giving this idiot a stage.

Doon

Hey Doon, since you're speaking about idiots, aren't you going to thank killerdirectory for giving you a (smaller) stage?

(me likey)

Noob

Doon, you're a giant cuntasaurus rex.

Rofl

"Rather ugly" was my first reaction...

Mike O.

The naturalist, J. B. S. Haldane, was asked by a cleric about what he might infer about the Creator, based on his wide ranging study of life.
Haldane supposedly replied the the creator had "an inordinate fondness for beetles" based on the then current count of beetle species at around 400,000.
I thought the art intruiging and impressive, but not worth lives of 1.6 million beetles...

Imago

@Doon - yes, you would get very, very famous for doing that. You might get rich too if you took a few dollars out of each so-called artist's wallet first.

Cody

1.6 million beetles were murdered for the sake of..."art". Boy, Peta's gonna throw a fit over this'n.

RaulJones

Gross use of living organism parts to create "art" is not art. It is horror. I am sickened.

EmailACar

Dat is soo poor. Poor little thingi-bums!

Doreeen

I'm not sure what makes me laugh harder: Doon's denigration of a work of art he'd never have the talent to create or the weepers on the thread bemoaning "beetle murder" when the chrysochroa fulgidissima (the beetle used in this piece) is, in fact, generally harvested post-demise. One of the many reasons the ass-clowns at PETA (which cares more about press than it does animals) continue to feed off of ignorance is its abundance in these types: willingness to be offended at something they know nothing about. Further, were the chrysochroa fulgidissima left unchecked in its spread, it would devastate entire forests; it's a wood-boring beetle. It needs to be culled no matter what its use.

Trey

No dean, the artist got famous for telling others (okay including himself) to glue the beetles to the ceiling

WhoDaGuy

Let's get something straight. What is interesting and unusual about this is an IDEA. A glitch. An artist creates something which other people can't. Michelangelo himself painted an old and boring theme: the creation of Man. Big deal, isn't it? But what he created of it is outstanding. Placing the beetle-guy in the same group (of artists) with Michelangelo is stupid. Period.

Balazs

Bugskillers!!!!!!!!!

Zsofi

people are so ignorant about art... so sad
FYI, oil and acrylic paints are made from lots of things, including bugs, sometimes tons of them crushed in a little tube. ever wonder why paint is so expensive? so it really makes no difference if the artist glue them or used them processed from a tube. i don't see PETA doing anything about the paint industry.

mackaque

If an insect like that sat on your arm - would you kill it or let him bite you? If it was 1.6 millions of insects like that sitting on you - would you like to kill them? Or would you think their life is too precious to do it? It's just a small beautiful insect, not really important for the world... Why making art using, lets say, paints, is "better" for some of you?

bla

Well said Zsofi! Thanks for that

bla

I mean mackaque... sorry, this speach bubbles are a bit confusing!

bla

This is beautiful. Doon, you are a doofis. Humans are cool. "The function of the artist is to provide what life can not."-Tom Robbins
and if that means taking a few lives, which I will admit is a little screwed up, well than so be it.

these beetles were probably collected over a long period of time, anyway. Stop your fusses. Do any of you eat meat? or wear shoes? or use shampoo? Because they all use animals to make that stuff. Thousands of cute little animals raised in pens.

Art is a blessing. Stop being such stupid pussys.

that one chick with purple hair that called you a pussy

This is awesome, wouldn´t wonder if Southpark would make an episode out of it.

goosebumbs

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