A curious and possibly tipsy woman accidentally destroyed an art piece worth about $40,000. It was a showing for Jeff Koons. He’s well known for his collection of art that looks like balloon dogs.
They’re very convincing, right down to the twists and crinkles. The woman reached out to touch it to see if it was real or not. Never mind all the signs saying, “Don’t Touch” or the basic common sense of not trying to manhandle expensive art. It fell of its stand and broke into chunks of porcelain. To be fair, she never actually touched it. As she leaned in, her leg hit the stand it was on, toppling the artwork.
Fortunately, 798 other copies of the Balloon Dog figure are in existence. There’s even a giant one that sold for $58.4 million in 2013. The one that broke had insurance. So, the woman is off the hook. Also, people have been offering to buy the broken pieces simply because it HAD BEEN a Jeff Koons piece.
What kind of rich do you have to be to offer thousands of dollars for broken shards of porcelain? I can hear it now, “Hmm, why yes, Geoffrey Saint Goldennuggets here. I wish to inquire about purchasing tat natty piece of porcelain that looks as though it could have come from a Jeff Koons piece or an ashtray. Either way, I would like to offer $8,000 for it please.”