Anyone must have had this concern at least once. At an art fair in the United States, famous artist Jeff Koons’s expensive sculpture ‘Balloon Dog’ was shattered by a visitor’s mistake.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 19th, at a VIP preview event held on the night of the 16th to mark the opening of the Art Wynwood Art Fair in Miami, USA, a female visitor held Koon’s ‘Ballon Dog’ on a stand. dropped from
The ceramic work, which costs 42,000 dollars, or regarding 55 million won, was broken into regarding 100 pieces, the newspaper said.
Other audience members, who initially thought it was planned performance art, realized it was an accident only when they saw the staff rushing to the scene and the woman’s face turning blue.
Artist and collector Steven Gamson, who witnessed the scene at the time, told local media, “The woman seems to have touched it to see if it is a real balloon.”
The woman who broke the piece repeatedly said, “I’m so sorry,” and appeared to be trying to get away quickly, according to Bel Air Fine Art Gallery, which exhibited the piece.
The ‘Balloon Dog’ works by Koons are all thousands of pieces and are made in various colors, sizes and materials. The broken piece this time is a blue porcelain statue with a height of 40 cm and a length of 48 cm.
The orange ‘Balloon Dog’ sold for $58.4 million at a Christie’s New York auction in 2013, setting the record for Koons’ highest bid for a living artist.
This record was broken by David Hockney’s painting ‘Portrait of an Artist’ ($90.3 million), but another Koons painting, ‘Rabbit’, came back in May 2019 with $91.075 million.
The pieces of ‘Balloon Dog’ that were smashed at the art fair are put in a box and are waiting for review by the insurance company, but the broken pieces are expected to be sold at a high price.
Gamson asked the gallery if they would be interested in selling the broken piece, and said the gallery was currently reviewing it.
In the art market, so-called ‘stories’ works sell at a high price, even if they are of the same edition.
“This is good news for collectors,” said Cedric Boero, regional director of Bel Air Fine Art Gallery France, as the number of editions of Koon’s blue ‘Balloon Dog’ decreased from 799 to 798, increasing its rarity and value.
YTN Lim Soo-geun (sglim@ytn.co.kr)
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