K Foundation, ‘K Foundation burn a million Quid’ (1994)

On the 23rd August 1994, in a boathouse on the Scottish island of Jura, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, formerly known as the most succesful British 90s pop group the KLF (which stands for Kopyright Liberation Front and also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords and other names), then known as the K Foundation, incinerated £1,000,000 in cash. This money represented the bulk of the K Foundation’s funds, earned as the KLF.

The burning was witnessed by an old friend of Drummond’s, freelance journalist Jim Reid, who subsequently wrote an article about the ceremony for The Observer. It was filmed on Super 8 by their friend Gimpo. Reid admitted to first feeling shock and guilt about the burning, which quickly turned to boredom. The money took well over an hour to burn as Drummond and Cauty fed £50 notes into the fire. Drummond later said that only about £900,000 of the money was actually burnt – the rest flew straight up the chimney. The press reported that an islander handed £1,500 into the police; the money had not been claimed and would be returned to the finder.

Click here for Reid’s article on the burning and its aftermath.