Albanian makes record Michael Jackson mosaic
TIRANA (Reuters Life!) - A mosaic of the late Michael Jackson composed of 230,000 paintbrushes by Albanian artist Saimir Strati entered the Guinness World Records as the world's largest paintbrush mosaic on Friday.
Almost as big the side of the truck on which it stood, the mosaic of brown and black paintbrushes showed Michael Jackson singing with his head slightly thrown backwards and his arms outstretched.
"I have measured the mosaic and this is a new Guinness World Record," Guinness adjudicator Andrea Banfi told the crowd, who cheered loudly in Tirana's main Skanderbeg square.
"Saimir is an old member of the Guinness World Record family and we are glad to have him back," Banfi told Reuters.
Strati worked for 16 hours each day for a month listening to Jackson's music at high volume and showed his work around Albanian towns before taking it to the centre of Tirana.
"All the time I was being guided by his music and made a silent deal with him to help me find the secrets of his great singing," Strati told Reuters.
Jackson's mosaic was the fourth work to earn Strati a Guinness World Record's entry. He has also created the world's largest mosaic with nails, toothpicks and bottle corks.
(Reporting by Benet Koleka; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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