“Several years ago, Koons developed a colour-by-numbers system, so that each of his 70 highly trained assistants could execute his super-realist canvases and sculptures as if they had been done by a single hand. One team identifies every area of a digital printout that requires its own colour – there are no gradations, and no room for interpretation; every distinct shade is identified, mapped out and given a number. Another team then mixes each of these colours, and passes them on to a third team: the painters. No paint leaves the colouring table before being approved by Koons.”