The thing about diaphanous art pedestal is that they ’re diaphanous . So it should n’t totally scandalise anyone that a visitor to Art Wynwood in Miami accidentally bumped into one last week , have a valuablelimited - version sculptureby artistJeff Koonsto come tumbling to the ground .
slimly more scandalous : Collectors are looking for any broken fragment from the dustpanful they can get .
harmonize toThe New York Times , the collision ask place during a preview vitrine for the art fair . TitledBalloon Dog ( Blue ) , the 16 - inch by 19 - column inch porcelain sculpture meant to mime a latex balloon fauna was resting on a transparent pedestal when a adult female unknowingly gave it a fiddling kick . ( Eyewitness account vary : Another version has her horn in it with her fingerbreadth . ) The object fell , shattering into at least 100 pieces .
“ life sentence just lay off for 15 minute with everyone around , like security system , ” exhibitioner Cédric Boero told theTimes . “ [ The woman ] say , ‘ I ’m very , very disconsolate , ’ and she just wanted to disappear . ”
At the sentence of the chance event , collectors perusing the veranda come near employee to see if some of the pieces might be for sale . ( Intact , the carving is valued at roughly $ 42,000 . A total of 799 of them were made in 2021 , crap them somewhat more affordable than the tenner of millions Koons often convey for his one - of - a - kind works . )
“ For me , it ’s like some kid collecting baseball game cards , ” collector Stephen Gamson , who find the stroke , toldThe Washington Post . “ I ’m really into it and , when you ’re that passionate about it , even broken part or damaged slice have economic value to you . ”
Admirers accidentally damaging artis nothing newfangled . In 2010 , a woman fell intoThe histrion , aPablo Picassopainting , at New York ’s Metropolitan Museum of Art . The equipment casualty require three months of restoration work . In 2006 , three Qing Dynasty vases were shatter when a man flex over to tie his shoe and lost his equaliser .
For now , the balloon frankfurter pieces are being carry until the insurance society can assess the title . If it were to be sold off piecemeal , the genuine treasure might be in the tail : It go the fall more or less intact .
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
