A Couple In Seoul Accidentally Vandalised A Painting With 3.6 Crores. It Was An Honest, Yet Expensive Mistake!
While I haven’t really been to an art museum yet, it doesn’t require for me to be actually there to know how they work. A simple rerun of any Parisian movie featuring the Louvre or a binge of Sex and The City, would be enough to teach you that art in any museum art is only to be observed and admired from a safe distance. A concept that didn’t stick with a couple, who got confused at the sight of paints and brushes kept next to the painting, thinking it was for them to add their touch to the painting. Except, they were wrong and the painting in question was worth $ 440,000.
In a rather unexpected move, a couple from Seoul, South Korea was recently apprehended after a CCTV footage caught them ‘accidentally’ vandalising the painting of an artist put on display in a mall in Seoul. The artist whose work was meddled with has been recognised as JonOne, and his painting was worth almost 3.6 Crores as reported by Reuters.
Turns out, the couple that was identified to be above 20 years old was visiting the exhibition in the mall on 28th of March when they stumbled across JonOne’s piece. When they saw paints and brushes kept by its side, they confused it as one of those ‘participatory art’ pieces which require people to add their own contributions to the painting.
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A young couple accidentally vandalized a painting worth about $500,000 at a gallery in Seoul, its exhibition head said on Friday. Footage showed the couple using acrylic paint and a brush that were part of a display near the artwork to splatter a new addition to the piece. pic.twitter.com/eYy0gsFHX3
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 2, 2021
Captured on camera as picking up the paints and adding their contributions to the $ 440,000 piece, that can be seen in traces of green on top of the original painting. The original was painted by artist JonOne in 2016 in front of a live audience and measures upto 240 cm x 700 cm.
While it is common to transport the paints and brushes used to create it along with the painting, Kang Wook, head of the exhibition at Seoul’s Lotte World Mall said he understood how it could be mistaken for otherwise. He said, “They thought they were allowed to do that as participatory art and made a mistake. We are currently in discussions with the artist about whether to restore it.” Wang further to this decided not to press charges for he recognised this as an honest mistake. Which it was, honest and an expensive mistake!
