Normally, when you head to an art gallery the pieces are placed behind a velvet rope or viewed at a distance. The Mona Lisa has its own little Perspex box, and for good reason, as one Los Angeles-based gallery recently found out.
The Hypercaine exhibition, laid on by Hong Kong-based artist Simon Birch at LA’s 14th Factory gallery, saw rows of valuable crowns placed on pedestals throughout the gallery. The Los Angeles Times even went as far as offering an Instagram tour of the new work, which led to the fateful selfie.
CCTV footage shows a visitor ready for her close-up when disaster strikes.
She crouches down and edges back and gets a little too close, knocking over one pedestal and creating a domino effect to take out a whole row.
A spokeswoman for the gallery said that the incident took place a fortnight ago and three pieces were permanently damaged and others to a varying degree to the tune of US$200,000.
Luckily for everyone involved, insurance was able to step in.
The video, which was reportedly uploaded by a friend of the artist, was no publicity stunt, the spokeswoman confirmed.
“There has been speculation whether this really happened or is a PR stunt. The truth is, the event did happen and it was caught on our security camera,” the spokeswoman said, according to Yahoo News.
“It would be pretty irrational for the artists behind these sculptures to intentionally inflict harm on their own work hoping to gain any benefit.”
The artist has taken the whole incident in their stride, as he told The New York Times, there are no plans to limit access to the work.
“We trust people,” Birch told the publication. “Crowns are fragile things. They are symbols of power. Perhaps it’s ironic and meaningful that they fell.”
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