Jeff Koons: Visitor breaks iconic balloon dog sculpture in Miami

"Please don't interaction the artwork".

Now and then, we are reminded arsenic to wherefore these signs are inactive needed successful galleries astir the world.

Art lovers successful Miami looked connected successful fearfulness connected Thursday night, erstwhile a collector accidentally knocked a $42,000 (£34,870) sculpture by US popular creator Jeff Koons to the ground.

She had tapped it with her finger, witnesses astatine the lawsuit said.

The statue - 1 of Koons' iconic Dog Balloons - smashed into tiny shards, and had to beryllium swept into dustpans by assemblage staff.

The mishap happened during the exclusive VIP-only opening nighttime of Art Wynwood, a modern creation just held annually successful Miami, Florida.

Local creator Stephen Gamson told the Miami Herald helium was admiring the sculpture, erstwhile an "older woman" tapped it, knocking it disconnected its pedestal.

At archetypal helium wondered if it was portion of a show portion (Banksy, anyone?) but rapidly realised it had been an accident.

"When this happening fell to the ground, it was similar however a car mishap draws a immense assemblage connected the highway," Mr Gamson told the paper.

Luckily for the woman, the portion is covered by insurance, Bénédicte Caluch, an creation advisor with Bel-Air Fine Art galleries which represents the sculpture, said.

"It was an event!" Ms Caluch told the Miami Herald. "Everybody came to spot what happened."

She added that the pistillate who caused the damage, who has remained unnamed, was an creation collector.

"Life conscionable stopped for 15 minutes with everyone around," Cédric Boero, who besides works for Bel-Air Fine Art galleries, told the New York Times.

He added that a workfellow spoke to the woman, who said she was "very precise sorry" and "just wanted to disappear".

The sculpture was portion of a constricted variation which has present shrunk from 799 to 798.

"That's a bully happening for the collectors," Mr Boero told the Times, laughing.

Despite being shattered into thousands of pieces, determination is inactive involvement successful buying the destroyed sculpture.

Mr Gamson offered to bargain it determination and past because, arsenic helium said on his Instagram account, "it has a truly chill story".

Jeff Koons, 68, has not made immoderate remark connected the incident.

His scope of Balloon Dog sculptures are among the astir iconic works of modern art, and person sold for tens of millions of dollars.

Some are tremendous - arsenic precocious arsenic 10ft (3m) - but this sick fated 1 was conscionable a puppy, astatine 16 inches (40cm) tall.

They person graced galleries astir the world, and were further iconised by Jay-Z successful 2017 erstwhile the rapper worked straight with Koons to make a 40-foot inflatable Balloon Dog for a signifier prop.