State Department to spend $400,000 on camel sculpture in Pakistan

From Buzzfeed:

The State Department is planning to spend $400,000 in taxpayer funds to buy a sculpture for the new American embassy being built in Islamabad, Pakistan, according to contracting records.

The work, by noted American artist John Baldessari, depicts a life-size white camel made of fiberglass staring in puzzlement at the eye of an oversize shiny needle — a not-so-subtle play on the New Testament phrase about the difficulty the wealthy have in entering the kingdom of heaven.

To put the sculpture’s price tag into a local perspective, the average yearly income in impoverished Pakistan is about $1,250 per year, according to the Agency for International Development.

Seems like a great use of taxpayer money.