A woman broke a $42,000 dog balloon sculpture at an art fair in Miami after believing that the statue wasn’t real.
RELATED STORIES: San Francisco Art Gallery Owner Arrested & Charged After Apologizing For Spraying Homeless Woman With Water
The incident took place on Thursday at the Art Wynwood’s VIP Preview event when the woman observed the porcelain statue and poked the blue dog balloon statue by American artist Jeff Koons. According to The Miami Herald, Stephen Gamson said the crowd gathered over the broken pieces and compared the situation to a “car accident.” Some attendees initially believed that the broken statue was a publicity stunt as some art fairs attract gimmicks of all kinds.
Collector smashes $42,000 sculpture at Art Wynwood in Miami – Daily Mail
The girl decided to check if the work of Jeff Koons "Balloon Dog" really matches the name, and hit it. Shards scattered all over the hall, because it was made of blue porcelain. pic.twitter.com/LHyKElBpLQ
— Себастьян Перейро 🦋🇺🇦🇨🇭 (@stringerukraine) February 18, 2023
As for the woman, she was an art collector who didn’t intentionally mean to break the art piece and gallery staff managed to clean up the pieces. Additionally, the art gallery said she didn’t have to pay for the damages since the sculpture is insured.
RELATED STORIES: Artist Throws Pickle On Gallery Space Ceiling And Sells It For $6,000
Jeff Koons is known for his realistic depictions everyday objects and pop culture references. Additionally, his artwork is known to be one of the most expensives pieces in the art industry. In 2013, Koon’s giant, orange version of the “Balloon Dog” sold for $54.8 million and his “Rabbit” sculpture was sold for $91.1 million. Last year, his giant bowl of eggs statue became a sensation at Wynwood.
Jeff Koons balloons are very much in the mold of simple gimmicky modern art BUT the concept of making solid something so disposable is interesting.
Liking a glorified version of a plastic sculpture of a McDonalds burger.
— panda_ben (@elephant_ben) February 18, 2023
……maybe put a fragile, $42,000 sculpture in a case …just a thought . .
— Susan Thompson (@SLT229) February 18, 2023
Gamson said the sculpture was the main attraction of the booth and Bel-Air Fine Art advisor said he’s never seen an art piece break in pieces before in galleries. However, Gamson offered to buy the sculpture despite it being smashed in pieces and this is not the first time the sculpture was in pieces.
According to the New York Post, a previous balloon dog was smashed to pieces in 2016. However, Koons was not bothered by it.
“It’s a shame when anything like that happens but, you know, it’s just a porcelain plate. We’re really lucky when it’s just objects that get broken, when there’s little accidents like that, because that can be replaced.”
Koons didn’t comment on the recent incident.