by Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and art collectors have turned their eyes to the broken pieces of a Jeff Koons sculpture.
Balloon Dog (Blue), a $42,000 porcelain sculpture by the neo-pop artist, was smashed into pieces at Miami’s Art Wynwood contemporary art fair on the night of February 16.
Koons’ attention-grabbing pieces have become icons of America’s contemporary art scene. The Balloon Dog sculpture was one of the big draws at the fair, but it was the catastrophe of its demise that became the main event.
“When this thing fell, it was like a car crash drawing a huge crowd onto the freeway,” artist and collector Stephen Gamson told the Miami Herald. “That was really the star of this stand.”
Shinuna Karume, left, French Consul General Jeremie Robert and artist Jeff Koons with Balloon Dog (Blue).
(Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Now Gamson is among the collectors hoping to buy the broken parts of Balloon Dog (Blue).
“Some collectors offered to buy the shards, and we’re still receiving offers as we speak,” Bel-Air Fine Art district manager Cédric Boero told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
“I find it valuable even if it’s broken,” Gamson told the Miami Herald. “For me, it’s the story. That makes the art even more interesting.”
The sculpture-to-shards fiasco happened inside the Bel-Air Fine Art booth Thursday night when a woman unknowingly bumped into the see-through booth displaying the metal-blue sculpture. The balloon dog is said to have flown. It noisily broke into more than 100 pieces, quickly drawing the attention of fair-minded aesthetes who gathered, mouths agape, cellphones at the ready.
“You have to be very subtle about it,” says one man in a video captured by Gamson. “Take this piece here.”
“Look, that’s the new art installation over there…because it’s all art, isn’t it?” says a woman while pointing to the shards.
Koons, whose $91 million sculpture Rabbit set the record for the most expensive work sold at auction by a living artist, introduced the balloon dogs in 1994 as part of his Celebration series. In 2013, Koons’ steel sculpture “Balloon Dog (Orange)” sold for $58.4 million. “Balloon Dog (Blue)” listed for a relatively modest price of around $42,000.
This isn’t the first sculpture by Koons to suffer a broken fate. In 2016, another balloon dog broke up in Miami. In a statement to Page Six, the artist appeared nonchalant about the incident.
“We’re really lucky when things just break when there are little accidents like that,” Koons said, “because that can be replaced.”
