Bel-Air Fine Art was displaying the sculpture at its booth at Art Wynwood, a contemporary art fair in Miami, when it was knocked over Thursday afternoon at a VIP event ahead of the festival this past weekend, CBS News reported.
A Miami art gallery visitor accidentally knocked over one of Jeff Koons’ “Balloon Dog” sculptures, causing it to shatter, according to the gallery Bel-Air Fine Art .
The blue “Balloon Dog” was one of a series of 799 of the sculptures made by the famous artist and was on sale for $42,000, according to CNN.
Bel-Air Fine Art was displaying the sculpture at its booth at Art Wynwood, a contemporary art fair in South Florida, when it was knocked over Thursday afternoon at a VIP event ahead of the festival this past weekend, CBS News reported.
The blue “Balloon Dog” was not encased and actually was never touched, according to CBS News.
The sculpture was knocked over by accident when a guest bumped into the pedestal on which it was displayed, Bel-Air Fine Art district manager Cédric Boero told CBS News.
"Of course it is heartbreaking to see such an iconic piece destroyed. However, the collector never intended to break the sculpture, in fact she never touched it with her hands," Boero told CBS News. "It was the opening cocktail, lots of people were on our booth; she gave, unintentionally, a little kick in the pedestal, which was enough to cause the sculpture to fall down."
Boero appeared to be unfazed by the accident, telling CBS News, “This kind of thing unfortunately happens, that is why the artwork was covered by insurance.”
The shattered sculpture, according to Boero, was valued at $24,000 a year ago, NPR reported. However, it went up in price as other iterations of the balloon dog sculpture in the same series sold out, according to NPR.
"It shattered into a thousand pieces," Stephen Gamson, an artist who attended the event, posted on Instagram, along with videos of the aftermath. "One of the most crazy things I've ever seen."
Gamson also posted images and video of the sculpture in pieces on the ground.
Inside Edition Digital has reached out to Bel-Air Fine Art for comment on this story and has not heard back.
The blue “Balloon Dog” is actually still listed for sale on Bel-Air Fine Art website and features an image of the sculpture completely intact.
Bel-Air Fine Arts told CNN that some collectors have actually offered to purchase the broken pieces.
Artist Jeff Koons has not commented on the incident.
