PARIS – Paris’ Pompidou Center inaugurated a major retrospective Tuesday of U.S. artist Jeff Koons, the polemical 59-year-old master of kitsch, whose huge, stainless-steel balloon dog broke records last year, selling at auction for $58.4 million.

The exhibit features the porcelain statue of Michael Jackson with his pet monkey, Bubbles, as well as the simplistic inflatable mirrored rabbit that first made Koons’ name in the ’70s and a lewd image with his ex-wife, porn star La Cicciolina.

The show spans 35 years and shows why Koons, America’s highest-selling living artist, is also one of its most controversial. Parts of the exhibit are forbidden to minors.

“Koons’ work, whether we accept it or not, is undoubtedly unique in provoking so much thought and debate,” said the curator of the retrospective, Bernard Blistene.

It comes just months after his retrospective opened at New York’s Whitney Museum for a run that saw two separate attacks on the exhibit by vandals.

When Koons was in France in 2008, an installation of 17 sculptures in the Versailles Palace sparked sharp criticism from conservatives for despoiling the iconic site.