Woman Wants to 'Disappear' After Accidentally Shattering Jeff Koons' Iconic $42000 'Balloon Dog' Sculpture

The one instruction we are all given during visits to art exhibitions is to not touch any of the artworks. But unfortunately, a visitor a the contemporary art fair in Miami ended up shattering a $42, 000 sculpture by artist Jeff Koons. According to BBC, the witnesses at the annual Art Wynwood event on Thursday spotted an art collector tapping the electric-blue Balloon Dog sculpture and the sculpture toppling over and breaking into pieces.

However, CNN reported that a representative for the art gallery hosting the exhibition claimed the woman gave “an unintentional kick to the pedestal” and as a result, the pricey sculpture fell over. Media outlets reached out to the Bel-Air Fine Art galleries and Jeff Koons for further comments but failed to receive an immediate answer from them. "When this thing fell to the ground, it was like how a car accident draws a huge crowd on the highway," local artist and collector Stephen Gamson told the Miami Herald, initially thinking that all of it was a stunt.

This was truly an unfortunate event that no one saw coming. "Life just stopped for 15 minutes with everyone around, "Cédric Boero, who works for the galleries, told The New York Times. He also added that the woman who caused the sculpture to topple over was "very very sorry" and "just wanted to disappear." We are certain that the woman will have nightmares about this incident for the rest of her life. We still don't know if she has to compensate for the loss of such a valuable sculpture or not.

According to Artnet, Koons is one of the most prolific contemporary artists hailing from America, and he is best known for his oversized sculptures of kitschy souvenirs, toys, and ornaments that are bright and shiny. The dog sculpture which got destroyed accidentally was measured at  40 x 48 x 16 centimeters and was made of porcelain, per Bel-Air Fine Arts website. There are 799 editions of the sculpture, which vary in size.

Koons’ balloon figurines are some of the most expensive pieces of art that get sold on today’s date. According to The New York Times, his 1986 piece called Rabbit was sold for $91 million at Christie's New York, breaking the record for the most expensive art piece sold by a living artist in 2019. The orange version of the now-broken Balloon Dog from his 1994-2000 series sold for $58.4 million six years ago. At that time, Koons told Page Six, per Artnet, "We’re really lucky when it’s just objects that get broken. That can be replaced. It’s just a porcelain plate.”

Even as we feel sad about the broken artwork, offers are pouring in from art collectors who want to buy the broken pieces of the sculpture. Artist and collector,  Gamson claimed that he was trying to purchase the broken sculpture. “It has a really cool story,” wrote Gamson on Instagram. We wonder what each shard of the shattered dog costs.