Gilt Kate Moss on show at the British Museum

A solid gold sculpture of British supermodel Kate Moss worth 1.5 million pounds (2.8 million dollars, 1.9 million euros) was unveiled in London on Thursday

The 50 kilogramme (110-pound) work is by artist Marc Quinn, famous for a controversial sculpture installed in London's Trafalgar Square in 2005-2007 of a heavily pregnant and armless Thalidomide victim.

"I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment," he said. "But even Kate Moss doesn't live up to the image."

Moss, 34, has been in the news this week for her latest comments on size-zero fashion models, in which she lamented how thin she was in the early years in her career, which began when she was 15.

"I didn't eat for a long time. Not on purpose. You'd be on shoots with bad food or get on a plane and the food would be so disgusting you couldn't eat it," she told US magazine Interview, widely cited in the British press.

"I remember standing up in the bath one day and .. I was so thin! I was never anorexic.... I remember thinking, I don't want to be this skinny."

The golden sculpture, entitled "Siren," will go on display surrounded by other pieces including Crouching Venus, the goddess of love, at the British Museum on October 4. The show runs until January 25.