MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean artist sparks controversy with unauthorized display at Madrid wax museum

Miranda's pieces frequently explore identity, inhabiting, power structures, and Western decadence

Chilean artist Nico Miranda sparked a controversy at the Madrid Wax Museum with his representation of Argentine President Javier Milei as a lapdog of his US colleague Donald Trump, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likened to “Chuky,” the evil doll.

Miranda and his team discreetly entered the museum, placed their custom sculptures in the Oval Office room display next to the figure of Donald Trump, photographed the scene, and removed the pieces, all within approximately 20 to 30 minutes. They did this without the museum's permission.

Other figures designed as rats with the faces of Spanish politicians were also included.

Miranda claimed his work was “action art and contextual art,” intended to blend the museum's setting with current global issues, specifically mentioning the “genocide in Gaza.”

El artista Nico Miranda intervino la reproducción del Despacho Oval de la Casa Blanca en Museo de #Cera de #Madrid . En su acción insertó esculturas de #Netanyahu, #Milei, Abascal, Mar tínez-Almeida e #Ayuso, bajo la figura de #Trump, configurando una escena de crítica política pic.twitter.com/dGNmJ4WNBa

— Sir Leighton (@sirleighton) October 7, 2025

In 2023, the artist placed an unauthorized sculpture of King Juan Carlos I in Madrid's Puerta del Sol.

Miranda is known for his provocative, site-specific interventions that challenge political and cultural narratives. His work blends mass culture, satire, and contextual critique. His work often reinterprets public or institutional spaces, creating installations that provoke second readings of familiar settings. He manipulates symbols from popular culture and politics to generate rhetorical puzzles. He defines his practice as “art of action” and ”art contextual,” emphasizing the importance of situational awareness and global relevance in his interventions.

His pieces frequently explore identity, inhabiting, power structures, and Western decadence, often through satire and visual metaphor.

Miranda has a Master's degree in Visual Arts from Universidad de Chile and a Bachelor's in Fine Arts with a focus on Sculpture from Universidad ARCIS. He also has a teaching background at Universidad de Chile between 2011 and 2016.

He has held exhibitions at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago), Galería Metropolitana (Santiago), Galería Pabellón 4 (Buenos Aires), Saatchi Gallery (London), and Feria PINTA (Miami).