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Visitor accidentally shatters Jeff Koons 'balloon dog' sculpture
- a_bonobo 4y agoI'm actually surprised at the value of this piece seeing that it's fairly famous. Just $42,000, is that a typo?!
- graderjs 4y agoI guess it's tiny and there are 700 something of them made.
- culturestate 4y ago> Just $42,000, is that a typo?! Nope. He's made a bunch of different balloon animals, and this particular dog was an edition of a few hundred. You can buy one on Artsy right now if you've got some spare cash lying around: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jeff-koons-balloon-dog-blue-porcelain-edition-jepeukunseu https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jeff-koons-balloon-dog-blue-po...
- achow 4y ago> a visitor accidentally kicked its podium In the opening crowded social event how can the sculpture be placed unsecured on a glass table - also, the sculpture had rounded smooth glossy point of contact (dog's legs). The podium: https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_727,c_fit/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F230219130836-01-jeff-koons-balloon-dog-broken.jpg https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_727,c_fit/http%3A...
- EamonnMR 4y agoOh wow, that would be really easy to accidentally bump into. It's below eye level, invisible... yikes.
- joe_the_user 4y agoThe bad thing is whoever kicked the podium must feel terrible. Why did they put no effort into protecting this piece? Perhaps because they could easily make another one if it came to it. I mean, it's just a ceramic duplicate of an ordinary balloon dog, of which a million or so are made at children's birthday parties. Note, Koons himself produces work at scale in what he calls a factory and which is ... a factory.
- retSava 4y agoA total of 799 editions of the sculpture were made. Ie not a total loss for humanity.
- ec2y 4y agoThat’s .004%* of an increase in value for the rest of them. *Completely made up number as I’m not an art valuer, but the point stands.
- kristjansson 4y agoClearly the route to infinite value is destroying all of them
- ajdude 4y agoThere can only be one.
- ASalazarMX 4y agoNow I understand better that New Yorker cartoon: “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.” https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995 https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995
- sockaddr 4y agoThen I give 1/799th of a shit about this.
- rolenthedeep 4y agoYikes, that's just begging to get knocked over
- woleium 4y agoCould it generate some great publicity and cost nothing?
- cma 4y agoAlso, assuming it is LA, what about earthquakes? Several other sculptures on podiums there...
- iamtedd 4y agoFull-sized image: https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/230219130836-01-jeff-koons-balloon-dog-broken.jpg https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/230219130836-01-jeff-...
- woleium 4y agoThis is why a substance called "museum wax" was invented.
- beaned 4y agoFix it with Kintsugi [0] and sell it as a 1 of 1 for a higher price. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi
- graderjs 4y agoYeah I was thinking it's probably the idea behind: > Bel-Air Fine Arts added that some collectors have offered to purchase the broken pieces.
- iamtedd 4y agoIn the article, someone wanted to buy the pieces as-is for $15M.. Why waste time and gold?
- graderjs 4y agoFor more gold later on? Or the status now. Art is an investment… and I guess Some people have enough gold, but they enjoy other stuff.
- graderjs 4y ago[flagged]
- GavinMcG 4y ago[flagged]
- graderjs 4y agoIt's not absurd, or sexist. It's just a fact. If you pretend that you can't make any generalizations or statements because of one's gender...or you even pretend that's negative. Then you're the one being sexist. It's just crazy this kind of over protected speech. You're totally reading the wrong thing into it. Haven't you ever observed this?
- morsch 4y agoNope. Couldn't find anything via Google, either. I thought you were making a Seinfeld joke, at first ("The Little Kicks"), but apparently not.
- graderjs 4y agoWell, I guess you're not experienced enough. You're probably just mad that I'm free enough to say whatever I see, but you don't feel you can, owing to imagined restrictions in the language you feel is imposed upon you. Well, rather than taking it out on me, and pretending I'm wrong and you're right, why don't you see how you're the wrong one for trying to take that out on me...and just free yourself? Say what you want, rather than feeling to scared too and trying to police others owing to your own restriction. :) THank you :D
- GavinMcG 4y agoNever once. At best you're describing children, in my experience, not adult women. But especially if it is an involuntary expression of anger, as you say, then advancing the sexist "You're Cute When You're Angry" trope[0] is not a great reaction. [0] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YoureCuteWhenYoureAngry https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YoureCuteWhenYou...
- mcraiha 4y agoSomeone already tried to buy the pieces. "In his post, Gamson said he unsuccessfully tried to purchase what remained of the sculpture. "
- babyshake 4y agoWhat are the odds that the shattered sculpture is displayed and sold as its own distinct piece of art?
- anigbrowl 4y agoOne other media outlet had fun with this story, labeling it as 'breaking news.' It's not really interesting otherwise.
- retSava 4y agoSimilarly as when an individual takes down an unproportionally large part of a process (eg factory worker taking down the entire production line), this is the fault of the gallery that failed to secure the piece properly. Since about 800 of this dog is made, the cynically minded could think this was intentional for some publicity. It was insured, there are people wanting to buy the pieces, etc.
- thunderbong 4y agoFrom the article - > "This kind of thing unfortunately happens, that is why the artwork was covered by insurance"
- legohead 4y agoOdd, the article so confidently says it's an accident over and over, but other reports [1] [2] say she touched it on purpose. Is the owner of the gallery district manager here simply lying for insurance purposes? [1] https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/oops-woman-accidentally-breaks-42k-balloon-dog-sculpture-at-florida-art-fair/ https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/oops-woman-accidentally-br... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/18/arts/jeff-koons-sculpture-broken-miami.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/18/arts/jeff-koons-sculpture...
- anaxag0ras 4y ago> broke a $42,000 porcelain sculpture by artist Jeff Koons Thursday. > Herald that Gamson offered to buy the balloon dog’s remains for $15 million on the spot. Wait, so the broken sculpture is now worth more than before? How does this even make sense.
- number6 4y agoMoney laundering
- jefozabuss 4y agoIf they offered the same or double the price I would be still raising my eyebrows a bit but 15M lmao, how blatant is that.
- swatcoder 4y agoIt just went from a one nonspecific sculpture in a run of 799, to an absolutely unique item from that set with a specific historical lineage. The other 798 are no different than each other, but this is the only one among them that had this happen to it. So now it's priced more like his other singular works.
- Dalewyn 4y agoDepending on who you ask, those broken fragments are a one-of-a-kind.
- iJohnDoe 4y agoNot the visitor’s fault. It’s the gallery’s fault for displaying an expensive work of art in such a way that it can easily be damaged accidentally or purposefully.
- graderjs 4y agoWell it’s their fault if it’s purposeful…
- jnsaff2 4y agoThey should NFT the shit out of it. Oh wait, that was last year.
- ghostly_s 4y agoJust one mis-print from the Koons money printer; the world will go on.
- wirrbel 4y agoI was one in a Jeff Koond exhibit and I must say i don’t get his art. And I am not opposed contemporary art in general
- graderjs 4y agoI love Jeff Koons. I saw a massive show of his at MCA SYDNEY in the late 90s or early 2-thousands. Giant flower puppies and more. I really love his stuff. Makes Some of Takeshi Murakami’s sculptures look derivative.
- TacoSteemers 4y agoPerhaps people should kept at a distance. It happened before with a ball of his: https://hyperallergic.com/436913/jeff-koons-gazing-ball-destroyed/ https://hyperallergic.com/436913/jeff-koons-gazing-ball-dest...
- Brian_K_White 4y agoSounds like the gallery is 100% responsible and negligent for putting it on such a precarious setting. If a little foot tap at the base of the stand could do that, and they allowed feet to be near the base of the stand, then it could hardly have been worse if they just left it out front on the sidewalk. Ah, other comments are illuminating. The thing was mass produced and of little value despite the price tag. So now the worst job being done is not the gallery for failing to protect something of little value, but Zoe Sottie or CNN for publishing a non-story.
- kristjansson 4y agoThe speed at which this is doing the rounds (over a 1/799 piece!) feels like PR for the rest of the run.