Nick Smith's poo-a-like sold 

A sculpture of ACC and Environment Minister Nick Smith made out of cow manure has sold for $3,080 on auction site TradeMe.co.nz.

The bust sculpted as a protest by artist Sam Mahon, attracted 112 bids before being picked up by an anonymous buyer on Friday.

Mahon says he created the sculpture, and chose the medium, to protest what he considered Smith's too-soft position on dairy farm pollution.

He says the bust does not smell and will last forever.

The auction site listing described the sculpture as "light and hollow and highly polished".

The sculpture is on display at the COCA Gallery in Christchurch, exhibited on a steel stand.

Mahon is a Canterbury painter, printmaker and sculptor, who usually works in bronze.

He has also written three books - the latest, My Father's Shadow, was about his father Justice Peter Mahon, who headed the Royal Commission into the Erebus air disaster.

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