Mishap
The Shattered Balloon Dog
A tap, a wobble, and a pile of blue porcelain
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Image: Unsplash
Incident ReportCOA / MISHAPS
Accidental Damage Rating
- Repair Cost
- ~$42,000
- Curator's Blood Pressure
- 91%
- Embarrassment Level
- 8/10
- Recovered?
- No (swept up)
- Selfie Involved?
- Adjacent
A collector at a Miami art fair gave Jeff Koons's porcelain 'Balloon Dog (Blue)' an inquisitive tap. It wobbled off its pedestal and shattered into a heap of shards.
The limited-edition porcelain, one of 799, sat temptingly at ankle height. A visitor reportedly tapped it to see whether it was real; it answered by falling and exploding into blue fragments.
Gallery staff described a crowd gathering to photograph the debris, which — in a very contemporary twist — some argued had become more interesting as wreckage. The shards were swept up; the value, roughly $42,000, was not.