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Art exhibit is telling lens on Enron culture

It is probably the only funny collection of tombstones in the world.

At energy giant Enron Corp, where closing deals was considered the best way to fatten up one's bonus, creating "tombstones" or knickknacks to memorialise the deals was regular practice, one that a group of ex-Enron employees are displaying in an unusual art exhibit.

"Enron: A Term of Art" is the brainchild of some former Enron deal-makers and lawyers who wanted to show off some of their most collectible tombstones and other mementos in a humorous exhibition. Parodying a traditional art collection, each of the items bears a legend describing its history and a tongue-in-cheek title brewed up by the group.

"They wish that the company had worried less about making these things and worried more about other things," said Drew Crispin, who provided the space for the exhibition at his coffee stand in the lobby of Three Allen Center.

The downtown office building next to Enron's headquarters was once home to many Enron units including the now-infamous LJM off-balance sheet partnerships that ultimately led to the company's ruin.

The collection ranges from traditional corporate knickknacks such as watches, mugs and golf tees, to the extravagant -- a surfboard and a bottle of wine both bearing Enron's logo. The spate of Enron-related items that started showing up on Internet auction site eBay prompted the group to create the display, Crispin said.

'HANG 10-K' SURFBOARD

The multicolored surfboard was commissioned as a keepsake for a trip to the Caribbean island of Nevis by executives from Enron Energy Services. It is dubbed "Hang 10-K," a melding of the name of a financial disclosure document required by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the surfing expression "hang ten".

The elaborately etched wine bottle, containing a 1997 Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon, was given for second place in the 1999 Enron Golf Classic at a Houston country club.

Nearby is a block of Lucite containing a replica of an Enron stock certificate and the date April 14, 1998, given to some employees to celebrate Enron stock reaching $50 for the first time. The title? "Hindsight is 50/50." Enron's shares closed at 44.5 cents on Monday.

One memento, created to commemorate a 1995 asset sale, is a simple Lucite dome filled with shredded dollar bills and a small silver pin with Enron's old logo.

It's titled "Not a Shred of Evidence," a reference to allegations of systematic document shredding by Enron and its auditor, Andersen.

'SWAP TIL YOU DROP'

Eerily prescient is a 1997 coffee mug with the phrase "Swap Til You Drop," a reference to Enron's propensity to hedge risk with complicated financial derivatives like swaps and options. Enron had some $19 billion in derivatives on its books when it filed for a record Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 2.

A pewter sculpture of a Texas longhorn atop a black marble base with the Enron logo boasts the title "A Bunch of Bull."

"Jewels of the Vile" is a collection of two Enron bracelets, one of lapis lazuli, along with a sapphire-encrusted ring and a gold-accented Enron knife in a box. All four were gifts commemorating extended service at Enron.

"Bolt Before Screwed" is a tombstone for a $2.6 billion deal involving the Houston Pipeline Co. Made especially to commemorate the 1999 deal, the piece is a stainless steel bolt laid on velvet, inside a glass bell jar.

Enron's political largess is now the stuff of legend, and that generosity with funds even extended to the members of one of its political action committees, known as a PAC.

An item known as "How Much is Your Vote Worth?" is the 501st print of a numbered series of 900 given to Enron PAC members. The water color picture by Anne Kinder shows an eagle above the word "Vote," against an American flag background.

A July 2000 copy of the Enron code of ethics is framed in the collection. Its title? Res Ipsa Loquitur.

That's Latin for "The thing that speaks for itself."

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