A collector visiting a contemporary art fair accidentally toppled a small glass sculpture by artist Jeff Koons, shattering it to pieces.
The shiny blue sculpture, one of Koons’ famous “balloon dog” series, was valued at US$42,000.
The mishap occurred during a VIP preview at Art Wynwood in Miami, and some collectors thought it was performance art or a staged stunt.
Photo: AFP
The sculpture sat alone on an acrylic base emblazoned with Koons’ surname.
“I saw this woman was there, and she was tapping [the sculpture], and then the thing fell over and shattered into thousands of pieces,” artist Stephen Gamson said.
Gamson told reporters he thought the woman tapped on the artwork to see if it was a real balloon.
A bystander took a video of gallery employees sweeping up the glass shards.
“I can’t believe somebody would knock that over,” a voice is heard saying on the video.
Benedicte Caluch, an art adviser with Bel-Air Fine Art, which sponsored the Koons piece, told the Miami Herald that the woman did not mean to break the piece.
Insurance would cover the damage, he added.
Koons, who was not present, is a US painter and sculptor who draws inspiration from everyday objects, including balloon animals.
His works challenge notions of what is fine art, even as they have auctioned for as high as US$91 million.
His balloon dog sculptures vary in size, from less than 30cm in height to over 3m tall, and come in vivid colors.
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
RSS