Valuable Artwork Damaged by Posing Visitors
As the guards exited the room, the couple quickly positioned themselves. The man squatting over the chair covered with crystals, pretended to sit, the other took a picture. Just as they were about to take the picture, the man stumbled, his bottom falling into the chair. With a devastating crack, the chair split, and the couple swiftly fled from the room, leaving the chair damaged but repairable.
The accident blew up online after the footage of the cracked chair was released, with hundreds of comments and likes on Facebook, X, and other websites. After the couple exited the room where the crystal chair was located, they walked out the doors into a crowded plaza called the Piazza Erbe, where they easily slipped away. “It wasn’t such a brilliant thought to sit on an artwork,” Vannesa Carlon, the museum’s director commented. Carlon stated that she was more disappointed that the couple had chosen to escape rather than report it to an official.
The officials of the museum claimed that the value of the artwork had decreased after the “mishap” as labeled by the police; but the involvement of the police might make the artwork’s price increase. “It looks the same, but once an artwork is damaged it’s not really the same,” said Carlon. The chair was covered with Swarovski crystals and was located in Palazzo Maffei in Verona, Italy. After the accident that left the chair in shambles, the museum decided to repair it. Although the official price went down, the chair’s popularity increased because of the internet, which might lead the current price to rise.
Not every artwork gets damaged and repaired, leaving ones that are rarer than most. Because of the aftermath of the footage that was posted online, the crystal chair is already quite popular. Commonly, broken artwork is more famous, such as the Buddhas of Bamiyan, The Stonebreakers, and more. Moreover, the damage caused by the visitors wasn’t detrimental to the chair’s value, ironically, but beneficial. Overall, the popularity of artwork reflects its price, so although the condition of the chair was ruined, the price has risen.
