Koons announced the gift of a sculpture to the people of Paris in November 2016, after Jane D. Hartley, the United States ambassador to France at the time, had asked him to create a tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in France in 2015 and 2016.[11] Hartley had approached Koons after discussing the idea at a dinner in Paris in January 2016 with Jerry Speyer, then chairman of the board of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and a collector of the artist's work.[12]
The sculpture was made in Germany.[13] The costs for production and installation — amounting to 3.5 million euros — was raised from private donations by a nonprofit foundation, Fonds Pour Paris, and its counterpart in the United States, the Paris Foundation.[14] Among the donors to the project are Bernard Arnault, Leon and Debra Black, Kenneth C. Griffin, Leonard Lauder, and Ralph Schlosstein.[15] Koons later added $1 million of his own money, after delays led to an increase in production costs.[16]
The city proposed several sites to Koons, and he chose the one on the plaza in front of the Palais de Tokyo for its symbolic value; also, the plaza is not restricted by historic preservation provisions.[17] Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo subsequently announced that the sculpture was to be installed in 2017 on the plaza in front of the Palais de Tokyo.[18] However, the pavement turned out to be not strong enough to support the 34-ton sculpture and its 27-ton base. Also, there was criticism that the site had no connection with the attacks.[19] In January 2018, 23 French artists, politicians and cultural figures – including the artist Christian Boltanski and a former culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand[20] – asked for the plan to be abandoned, arguing in a letter to the newspaper Libération that the gift "was opportunistic and cynical". A second open letter, published by Le Monde and signed by various other arts professionals, including Palais de Tokyo cofounder Jérôme Sans and artist Loris Gréaud, followed and was intended as a defense of Koons's sculpture.[21][22] The plan to place the sculpture in front of the Palais de Tokyo was dropped by Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen in May 2018.[23]
The government's alternative proposal to install the monument in Parc de la Villette was later rejected by city planners.[24] Other venues that were under consideration included the Place des États-Unis.[25] The venue finally chosen is between Place de la Concorde and the Petit Palais, near the Embassy of the United States.[26][27]
In 2023, art historian Romy Golan wrote a commissioned essay for the Brooklyn Rail comparing Bouquet of Tulips with a 1937 mural by Fernand Léger and Charlotte Perriand. After the Koons studio objected to the piece and called it defamatory, the editors proposed significantly reducing it; Golan withdrew the essay, citing editorial independence concerns.[28] The incident was characterized by several journalism and legal experts as a case of editorial self-censorship.[28]
