MSCHF pre-sells a cow as 1,200 burger patties and 4 handbags

MSCHF is back with perhaps its most ingenious and provocative project yet. In the proposition, the American art collective has pre-sold a months-old cow they’ve bought named Angus into 1,200 burger patties and four leather handbags, which will be produced in two years when he reaches slaughtering age.

 

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The catch is, if more than 50% of purchasers voluntarily give up their order within two years, Angus will be spared and sent to a “Home for Happy Cows” with all proceeds funding his cushy retirement. On one hand, Angus was always destined for slaughter as one of more than 300 million cattle facing the same destiny annually.

On the other hand, MSCHF will be sending regular “pathos-laden” updates about Angus to all buyers as the baby cow grows up in an effort to stoke their conscience. As Angus inches ever closer to his moment of reckoning, will the majority choose to stand up against industrial production or choose to receive the product they’ve paid for? We’ll all find out in two years time on March 13, 2026.

All buyers of the Burger patties and Bag are sent a MSCHF gold token shaped like a cow’s ear tag certifying their pre-order. If the “seal of Regret” sticker is intact on the token, it means the pre-order is still valid and buyers can cancel the pre-order to attempt to save Angus’s life by entering their unique code at this link.

“In our base reality, no action offsetting consumption can be taken retroactively,” writes MSCHF. “Angus, via the Burger Preorder, constructs an artificial circumstance in which remorse becomes actionable. When the post-purchase glow wears off and you’re staring down the barrel of 2 years of pathos-laden bovine bildungsroman you can in fact concretely reverse your consumer choice.”

With 400 units available, the Angus Burger 3-pack retails at US$35 and comes with a 1x voting share, meanwhile, the Angus Bag with four units available comes with a 100x voting share. Both items have quickly sold out but are still available on the secondary market via StockX.

More details can be found on the dedicated MSCHF microsite.