Brooklyn store Art of Play has significantly raised the price of the animatronic bird that Kelly Clarkson was interested in purchasing.
“We’ve raised the price due to popular demand,” owner Adam Rubin told USA Today on Tuesday, October 13.
The mechanical singing bird, which is named Molly, now has an eight-figure price tag and costs $15 million. It was originally listed for $15,000.
Art of Play made headlines on Saturday, October 10, after Clarkson, 44, publicly slammed the specialty toy store, claiming that she was “treated like Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman.”
“Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad and had a few things in mind to buy and literally was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me,” the Grammy winner wrote via X at the time. “Wow, dude. You’re an idiot and just lost a huge sale.”
Following Clarkson’s viral post, Art of Play took to social media to defend its employees and claimed that the singer was in the store for “5 minutes” and had “inquired about our mechanical bird puppet named Molly.”
“We explained that while Molly is permanently attached to the wall and serves as a de facto mascot for our shop, a nearly identical automaton is owned by the creator of the machines, a brilliant artist named Bliss Kolb who lives in Seattle,” the store wrote via Instagram. “He told us he would be willing to part with Molly’s twin for $15,000. We explained all of this to Kelly Clarkson.”
Art of Play continued, “We also offered to show her a different singing bird automaton, made by a traditional clockmaking shop in Germany, that she could have taken home with her that day. It costs about $2,000. She did not stick around long enough to see it.”
Clarkson later shared a post with a photo of Molly with a price tag that read $15,000.
“So the whole conversation we had when I asked you if it was for sale whilst pointing to the price tag hanging on the wall with the title Singing Bird didn’t happen as you elevator eyed me saying in a condescending tone ‘Yes, it’s for sale but it costs 15,000 dollars so if you’d like me to find something comparable for you I can.’ That all never happened and now it’s not for sale,” she wrote via X on Sunday, October 11. “OK, cool. So you’re not only rude, you’re also a liar. Got it ✅ .”
Rubin told the outlet on Tuesday that the reason why Molly has a price tag is due to multiple inquiries the store has received about purchasing the toy.
“We have our automaton. So many people asked about it that we put a price on it,” he explained. “We talked to the creator and if someone showed serious interest, we would reach out to him about getting them an automaton.”
Rubin added that the animatronics “take years to make” and it “is not something that’s sitting in a warehouse.”
