Emma Sulkowicz, known for carrying a mattress around campus for what she claims is a protest of Columbia University's failure to punish her rapist, is hoping to cash in on her alleged art project.

Sulkowicz told the New York Times after her graduation on Tuesday — where she carried her mattress across the stage — that she would sell the mattress if offered.

"If some sort of museum wants to buy it, then I'm open to that," she said, "but I'm not going to just throw it away."

Sulkowicz has for the past year carried her mattress around for course credit at Columbia, and said she would do so until the man she accused of rape either graduated or was expelled. On Tuesday, both Sulkowicz and the man she accused — Paul Nungesser — graduated.

Nungesser is suing Columbia for engaging in Sulkowicz's harassment campaign against him. Nungesser was cleared of wrongdoing by a campus hearing and the police. He has also released Facebook messages showing friendly and loving messages between him and Sulkowicz after the allegedly brutal rape.

Sulkowicz was purportedly discouraged from bringing her mattress to the ceremony. An email was circulated Monday from the Columbia administration asking students not to bring "large objects which could interfere with the proceedings or create discomfort to others in close, crowded spaces shared by thousands of people" to the ceremony.

Sulkowicz told the Times that a woman approached her as she lined up prior to the ceremony and asked that she put the mattress elsewhere. Sulkowicz refused. Sulkowicz said the same woman approached her again at the stage and asked her not to carry the mattress across.

Video from the event taken by the Columbia Daily Spectator shows Sulkowicz and friends carrying the mattress across the stage. As she approaches the end of the stage for her diploma, Columbia president Lee Bollinger turns briefly to set something on the chair behind him as Sulkowicz leans over the mattress to catch his eye. The interaction between he and Sulkowicz is then obscured by a column, but they don't appear to shake hands.

"I even tried to smile at him or look him in the eye, and he completely turned away," Sulkowicz told the Times. "So that was surprising, because I thought he was supposed to shake all of our hands."

Columbia spokeswoman Victoria Benitez told the Times that there was no intended snub and that Bollinger couldn't shake Sulkowicz's hand because the mattress was between them.

Of course, Bollinger may also have not wanted photos or videos of him shaking Sulkowicz's hand as she carried the mattress, as that could be seen as a tacit endorsement of her stunt. Bollinger is also being sued by Nungesser.