When he made the original versions of his Monte Carlo Bonds, in 1924, Marcel Duchamp was already internationally known for his abstract paintings and controversial “readymade” sculptures. By this time, however, he was devoted to a rather different pursuit: gambling in the casinos of Monaco. After a period of careful study, Duchamp announced triumphantly that he had devised a strategy for playing roulette that would supposedly lead to guaranteed winnings. Duchamp created and sold bonds, like the one shown here, so that others might “invest” in, and ultimately reap the rewards from, his strategic gambling.

As is so often the case with Duchamp, however, the line between sincerity and jest is hard to draw. In the background, he printed lines of text to make forgery more difficult, yet these read “moustiques domestiques demistock” (half-stock domesticated mosquitos), a tongue-twisting, nonsensical phrase. Adorning the roulette wheel is a photograph of Duchamp himself, covered in soapsuds, as if caught midway through a bubble bath. As it turns out, the buyers of these artful bonds never took Duchamp up on his offer: they preferred to preserve the works rather than cut out the coupons to collect their share of the winnings.