Woman breaks $42,000 ‘balloon dog’ sculpture at Florida museum

Don’t touch the art, people. That cute little balloon dog just might be a $42,000 porcelain sculpture.

A woman attending Art Wynwood, a contemporary art fair in downtown Miami, accidentally broke a pricey sculpture by world-famous artist Jeff Koons Thursday night. The shiny, electric blue sculpture was on display at Bel-Air Fine Art’s booth during the fair’s VIP Preview event.

Once the sculpture shattered, the VIPs gathered.

“When this thing fell to the ground, it was like how a car accident draws a huge crowd on the highway,” said Stephen Gamson, a Wynwood-based artist and art collector.

Gamson said he saw the sculpture break and recorded video of the aftermath. A large crowd gathered around the broken pieces with many people wondering if the incident was a performance art piece or another art fair stunt. (This is Miami, after all. Home of the duct-taped bananas, nosy ATMs and women in floating chairs.)

Not this time, Gamson said. Just a good ol’ fashioned accident.

The artwork is immediately recognizable, even if you’re not a big art buff. Koons, an American artist, is known for his pop culture references and depictions of everyday objects.

And his price tags are no joke. A massive, orange version of his “Balloon Dog” series was sold for $58.4 million in 2013. His sculpture “Rabbit,” which looks like a balloon bunny wielding a carrot like a knife, is one of the most expensive artworks sold by a living artist. It was $91.1 million.

Gamson, a Koons fan, was walking around Art Wynwood with a friend when he spotted the blue balloon dog sculpture sitting on an acrylic stand.

“It was really the star of this booth,” he said.

As soon as he pointed out the sculpture to his friend, Gamson said he saw an older woman tap the sculpture, immediately knocking it off the pedestal. The artwork loudly shattered into pieces, shocking everyone nearby and attracting a horde of people.

Though he doesn’t know for certain, Gamson said he assumes that the woman tapped the sculpture because she was curious if it was a real balloon. It was not.

Thankfully for her, there was no “if you break it, you buy it” policy at the booth. Bénédicte Caluch, an art advisor with Bel-Air Fine Art, said the artwork was covered by insurance. No hard feelings.

The woman was an art collector who did not mean to break the piece, Caluch said. Art fair staff quickly swept up the pieces, and nobody was hurt. Though it was a shame that the sculpture shattered, she said the gallery took it in stride.

“It was an event!” Caluch said. “Everybody came to see what happened. It was like when Banksy’s artwork was shredded.”

Gamson and Caluch both said they had never seen an artwork break at a fair before. It’s rare for guests to break artwork at galleries and museums, though in 2014, a local artist purposely shattered a priceless Ai Weiwei vase at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

The shattered Koons sculpture may still be worth big bucks. Gamson approached Caluch and offered to buy the broken pieces on the spot.

“I said, ‘For $15 million? Yea!’ ” Caluch joked.

Though she tried to sell him some artwork that was intact, Gamson said he would still purchase the pieces. Why? He’s an “art junkie.”

“I find value in it even when it’s broken,” Gamson said. “To me, it’s the story. It makes the art even more interesting.”

This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.