Jeff Koons’s Ex-Muse Ilona Staller Makes a Surprise Political Comeback

The former politician, adult-film star, and Jeff Koons’s ex-wife
and muse, Ilona Staller, has promised to stand in the next
elections in Italy. She will be campaigning against the country’s
populist government and its plan to slash pensions.

The 68-year-old retiree, who featured in several of Koons’s most
explicit photographs and sculptures for his “Made in Heaven”
series, is better known to many as “La Cicciolina.” She gained the
nickname, meaning “little fleshy one,” during her career as a porn
star in the 1980s.

Staller has promised to stand Italy’s next elections for the
political party she founded in 2012, which is called DNA—Democrazia
Natura Amore (democracy, nature, love). She says she is “pissed
off” with the anti-establishment Five Star movement.

“I am offended by this unconstitutional cut,” Staller told press
according to the Times
newspaper. “I am getting back into politics to point out
that these politicians are slashing the pensions of ex-MPs while
keeping their own wages. Let’s cut their wages in half.”

This is not Staller’s first foray into politics. She was first
elected to parliament in 1987 as an MP for the libertarian Radical
Party. In the 1990s she founded Party of Love, and ran for local
office several times before founding DNA in 2012.

When she retired, she received the country’s €3,100
($3,250)-a-month pension for former members of parliament, but Five
Star slashed that pension to €1,000 ($1,084).

In the past, Staller’s DNA party platform
included legalizing same sex marriage, establishing a
guaranteed minimum wage for young people, and eliminating
privileges for wealthy elites.

Staller was married to Jeff Koons in the 1990s, and features in
some of the artist’s most famous works. The couple tied the knot
1991, after they raised a sensation at the Venice Biennale the
previous year. Koons exhibited a series of sculptures and
photographs of the couple having sex in different positions,
settings, and costumes, called “Made in Heaven.”

Before they divorced in 1994, they had a son together, Ludwig.
After Staller returned to Italy with her son, the pair were
embroiled in a lengthy custody battle, which Staller eventually
won.

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