Um, you might want to think twice before you take a selfie in a museum
Watching people take selfies is always great fun. We all do it, so snarking about someone for walking backwards into a wall or something while they’re trying to get the perfect pose is possibly mean, but worth it. But we do really feel bad for this woman who ruined thousands of dollars worth of art by taking a selfie. The poor, poor artist. But hey, it’s a video to remember.
If you’re feeling down about something today, just remember: At least you’re not this unfortunate woman. It all went down at the Simon Birch exhibit at The 14th Factory In Los Angeles, which was comprised of 12 sculptures made of different materials, ranging from precious metal, marble, wood, and scrap metal. The Hong Kong artist collaborated with other international artists.
A woman can be seen on the gallery’s CCTV leaning down to get just the right angle for a selfie with the sculptures. She leans into too far into one and the sculptures fall one by one in a domino effect. The damage was about $200,000 and three of the sculptures were permanently damaged, according to Gloria Yu, one of the artists involved. Hashtag FAIL.
However! There are some people out there who think that this selfie fail was a publicity stunt, and to be honest, we wouldn’t put it past an artist and their PR team.
The 14th Factory didn’t confirm whether or not the pieces were insured, according to The Guardian. But they did say that they were not behind the release of the security footage. Which means that someone leaked the video of this disaster for some other reason. It could have just been a security guard who thought it was as amusing as we do, or it could have been a way to get attention for the artists.
Which seems sort of self destructive, since who wants to lose time, their art, and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars? Either way, be careful taking selfies next to important, expensive things. This could have happened to anyone.