Jeff Koons Balloon Dog Shatters And Bites The Dust, Might Be Rehomed Still
By Mikelle Leow, 21 Feb 2023
As swiftly as a pop of a balloon, a Jeff Koons sculpture was knocked over and shattered to pieces at a Miami art fair on February 16. Luckily, it might eventually find doggy heaven in the form of a wealthy collector’s home.
At the VIP preview of the Art Wynwood contemporary art fair, a 19-inch-tall Balloon Dog (Blue) work by one of the most expensive living artists was allegedly toppled by accident. In one fell swoop, the US$42,000 piece was reduced to at least 100 pieces, the New York Times reports.
It all happened so fast, but there were a few eyewitnesses who caught sight of the incident at the Bel-Air Fine Art booth, including artist and collector Stephen Gamson, who took a video of the aftermath. “I actually witnessed the whole thing,” he recounts, adding that it was “one of the [craziest] things I’ve ever seen.”
“You see now that is a new art installation,” one person can be heard proclaiming in the clip.
Gamson tells Miami Herald that he recalls an older woman, presumably a collector too, tapping the artwork, which supposedly led to its demise. However, a person identifying as the girlfriend of the woman’s grandson asserts that the lady did not lay a finger on the sculpture.
Seconding the defense, Cédric Boero, Bel-Air Fine Art’s district manager, agrees that the art collector did not touch the work, let alone intend to break it. The manager explains to Artnet News that the woman had unintentionally kicked the pedestal that held the Balloon Dog, which was enough of a push to knock it over.
Boero tells the Times that the world seemed to have “stopped for 15 minutes” when the sculpture crumbled beyond recognition.
Representatives of the gallery, along with the exhibition’s staff, swept up the shards with a broom. The woman linked to the fall had apologized profusely and “wanted to disappear,” Boero adds.
It appears that no one has been made to pay for the broken piece. Boero notes that this sort of thing happens now and then, so galleries often have their collections insured. As it stands, the remnants are now kept in a box and are pending evaluation by an insurance expert.
Regardless, you can teach this old balloon dog new tricks… beyond the ability to play dead. Although its heyday is over, the sculpture has suddenly gotten a lot more interesting to collectors, who are digging its story and are now keen to acquire the piece, or what’s left of it.
Boero comments that the gallery is receiving several offers to buy the smashed version. Gamson himself says he has tried to purchase it.
The Balloon Dog’s creator might not have any bones to pick with the incident, which has happened before. One other Balloon Dog had fallen to the ground at the Design Miami fair in 2016, and all he said then was that he was relieved that the only things broken were “just objects,” which could always be replaced.
Boero jokes that the gaffe has made Jeff Koons’ blue balloon dogs all the rarer as their limited count has been reduced from 799 to just 798, potentially making the sculptures even more valuable.
[via Artnet News and New York Times, images via various sources]