Naked as a Greek statue
Nude artist’s package at Met Gala
A Russian performance artist upstaged every celebrity wearing next to nothing at the Met Gala on Monday night — by wearing actually nothing.
Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich, 41, arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art around 8:30 p.m. in the back of a black SUV — folded up nude in a clear rectangular box, according to police and video.
Two stoic men in suits opened the vehicle’s trunk and carried him out in the sealed Plexiglas container, past stunned women in gowns and their escorts in tuxedos, and plunked him down on the red carpet in front of the Fifth Avenue museum.
Confusion briefly reigned until security threw a white sheet over the box and dragged it off.
The wacky artist was eventually forced out of his container by firefighters, who used a saw to cut it open, police said.
Pavlov-Andreevich was arrested and charged with public lewdness, obstruction of governmental administration, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
He told authorities the stunt was an act of artistic expression.
“The performance is to see how the institution reacts to the passive harmless box with an artist inside,’’ according to a posting on Pavlov-Andreevich’s Facebook page. The Moscow native’s au na
turel performance was the last of five similar ones in a series titled “Foundling,’’ the page said.
Pavlov-Andreevich previously had been dropped off nude in a clear box at events such as Christie’s Vanity Fair party in London in 2015 — when the woman checking names at the door wryly informed his handlers, “Sorry, he’s not going to make it in.
“He’s naked, that’s the main problem. There is a dress code for this party, and it doesn’t allow you to appear with no clothes on,’’ the woman quipped, according to the artist’s Web site.
Pavlov-Andreevich’s Facebook page griped that his reception at the Met was markedly different.
“Even though the security and policeman who were interacting with him directly found it funny they did not stop them for bringing all the charges and treating him as a real criminal due to the top scale of the event and high alert situation in the country in general,’’ said the posting, apparently written by a co-conspirator.
“If anyone cares about the box’s fate, it’s under arrest as well,’’ another post added.
According to his Web site, the artist likes to get naked for his work.
In 2013, he was hung in the buff in a net strung from the ceiling of a room for seven hours and also posed getting on a bus on the street without any clothes on.
Supporters took to Pavlov-Andreevich’s Facebook page to rave about his performance-gone-bust at the Met, calling it “Brilliant!’’ and “Best interpretation of the night’s theme.”
The Met Gala raises funds for the Manhattan museum and is considered one of the top annual fashion events in the city, drawing A- to D-list celebs and everyone in between.