Some guys, as the meme goes, spend a lot of time thinking about the Roman empire. But some have the means to emulate its emperors and highest-flying citizens, and with a net worth of about $181 billion, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is one of them. 

Zuckerberg has commissioned New York artist Daniel Arsham, best known for a sculptural practice that melds art and architecture, to create a larger-than-life portrait of his wife, philanthropist Priscilla Chan.

“Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife,” wrote Zuckerberg in an Instagram post from Tuesday. “Thanks @danielarsham.” 

In the artwork, Chan, depicted in the green hue of an oxidized copper roof, stands about 10 feet tall, stands on an amorphous, flowing base. Wrapped around and billowing behind her is a highly reflective metallic drape, somewhat in the manner of classical sculpture; a short video shows that this part extends dramatically behind her. The soundtrack for the video is a man strumming a guitar and singing the words, “sendin’ all my love to you.”

 

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In the photo, Chan herself poses casually, in a bathrobe and sipping from a coffee mug (which matches the green of the sculpture), in front of the artwork, which stands in the couple’s courtyard.

Thousands of commenters are heaping on the praise. Journalist Gayle King asked about the backstory; Zuckerberg responded, “I just try to keep a steady stream of creative projects going. I’ve joked about making a sculpture of her for years and when the opportunity to work with Arsham came up I finally did it!”

Some are less blown away. Entrepreneur Andrew Mwangi dryly commented: “This is the most billionaire thing to do ever.” 

Chan, though, is all about it. She shared an Instagram story of the post, captioned, “You can’t miss me!”

The couple met at a party while both were students at Harvard, in 2003. They married in 2012 and have three children.

Many tech giants have been serious art collectors, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison (who focuses on Japanese art), venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (contemporary art), former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (contemporary), Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen (Impressionist, Modern and contemporary), and Bill Gates (American art).

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is known to commission work from contemporary artists, including Baseera Khan and Timur Si-Qin, for its various offices. And the first major ad for Meta took place in an art museum, where paintings by figures such as Henri Rousseau come to life; the company’s video keynote started with Zuckerberg and colleagues bringing a piece of street art to life.

But if Zuckerberg himself has been much of an art collector, it’s been largely kept quiet. Will this be the beginning of an art collection at the level of Allen or Gates? Time will tell.