The contemporary art fair "Art Wynwood" is being held in Miami, Florida, USA, and this year is in its 10th year. Artists and art collectors from more than 50 countries and regions around the world have displayed their proud works, ranging from modern graffiti art to traditional works by masters.
What is unexpected is that one of the most popular works at the fair actually shattered all over the ground after being "gently tapped". On February 17, local time, when the expo was on its second day, the "balloon dog" with a deeply rooted image turned into a pile of debris.
"Balloon Dog" is a work by contemporary American pop artist Jeff Koons, using a puppy made of long balloons as a prototype, using stainless steel or ceramic to make a mirror-like smooth sculpture.
There are sculptures of "balloon dogs" in many parts of the world, large and small, and the colors are also different, with beautiful colors and lively lines, which are easy to attract people's attention.
As can be seen from the picture, the exhibit this time is not large, but because it is a limited edition, the price has reached 42,000 US dollars (about 290,000 RMB).
When the blue "balloon dog" fell to the ground in an instant, it quickly gathered a group of people, and "when this thing fell to the ground, it was like a car accident on the road and attracted a large crowd of people to stop and watch," said Stephen Garmson, a lively art collector, in a video he filmed.
Soon the vandal was also found, an elderly lady, who was later confirmed to be also an art collector, but not intentionally. It is reported that the lady tapped the ceramic sculpture because she was curious whether the "balloon dog" was made of balloons. Obviously, her curiosity was satisfied, and it was easy to know the truth by looking at the debris all over the ground, but the price was too great.
Fortunately, this ceramic "balloon dog" was insured. And it is said to be valuable even if it is broken, "it is a fragment with a story that makes art more interesting."
Artists and art collectors are distinguished from ordinary people in that their vision and thinking are always very clear. Jeff Koons, for example, spent 20 years perfecting a giant "colored clay" sculpture.
It is similar to the "balloon dog", thinking that it is formed by a pile of colored mud stacked together, but it is actually made of colored aluminum. The last one was sold for $20 million (about 140 million RMB).
More expensive than the "mud pile" is another "balloon dog", of course, this one is not made of ceramic, but stainless steel.
It is reported that the red "balloon dog" was bought in 2004 for 58.4 million US dollars (about 400 million RMB, at the exchange rate at the time).
The most expensive work of Jeff Koons, now 68, is a stainless steel rabbit created in 1986. Koons made three identical sculptures at the time, but one of them is the most famous.
Three years ago, the most famous one was auctioned for $91.1 million (about 630 million RMB), breaking the auction record for artworks by living artists. The other two, one donated to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the other became part of the permanent collection of The Broad Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Francisco.