Live Bees Are Part of Sculpture at NYC Museum

French sculptor Pierre Huyghe’s latest work, Untilled (Liegender Frauenakt)[Reclining Female Nude], is sending swarms of visitors to the Sculpture Garden of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) this summer. 

Standing in for the head of Huyghe’s reclining nude is a hive of honeybees. This buzz worthy addition to the museum’s collection is the “first living thing MoMA has put on display,” curator Laura Hoptman told the New York Post.

Tending daily to the thousands of Italian honeybees is fourth-generation Connecticut beekeeper, Andrew Cote. He was also responsible for introducing the hive to the sculpture this past April.

The upkeep of this living work is no small feat. Cote arrives at dawn and dusk every day to carefully trim and maintain the colony of fierce insects. With no protective cover to keep the bees from leaving, they are free to come and go as they please. Cote jokes, “They’re surrounded by [Henry] Moore, Matisse, and Picasso, so why would they go anywhere?”

As summer winds downs and the natural lifecycle of bees begins to slow, the sculpture will be dismantled and the bees will return home to their Connecticut farm. MoMA plans to freeze the hive for future summer exhibitions.

Let Yahoo Makers inspire you every day! Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest.