{"id":302945,"date":"2025-06-20T14:23:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T14:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/museumgoers-accidentally-break-fragile-crystal-covered-chair-inspired-by-vincent-van-gogh-painting\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T14:23:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T14:23:41","slug":"museumgoers-accidentally-break-fragile-crystal-covered-chair-inspired-by-vincent-van-gogh-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=302945","title":{"rendered":"Museumgoers Accidentally Break Fragile Crystal-Covered Chair Inspired by Vincent van Gogh Painting"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Security footage shows the two museumgoers pretending to sit on the artwork as they pose for photos at the Palazzo Maffei in Italy. After the piece\u2019s front legs bucked, the pair left the museum<\/h2>\n
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Sonja Anderson<\/a><\/p>\n

– Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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Visitors posing for photos accidentally broke\u00a0Van Gogh’s Chair\u00a0<\/em>by\u00a0Nicola Bolla.
\n Palazzo Maffei<\/span>
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At an Italian art museum, two visitors recently attempted to photograph themselves with a chair-shaped sculpture made of crystals\u2014with disastrous results.<\/p>\n

First, a woman hovered over the chair while a man took her photo. But when the man attempted to strike the same pose, he fell back onto the piece, breaking its front legs.<\/p>\n

The culprits hurried out of the room and left the Palazzo Maffei<\/a> in Verona without reporting the damage. But the incident was caught on camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t such a brilliant thought to sit on an artwork,\u201d Vanessa Carlon, the museum\u2019s director, tells the New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Claire Moses.<\/p>\n

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Carlon says the incident highlights just how far people will go to get a good photo, as well as their flagrant lack of accountability. \u201cThese two people decided to escape,\u201d she adds. \u201cThat was the behavior that really offended us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artwork, titled Van Gogh\u2019s Chair<\/em>, is by the Italian artist Nicola Bolla<\/a>, who\u2019s known for intricate, eye-catching sculptures made of unique materials, such as playing cards, according to a statement<\/a> from the museum. His most famous series, Vanitas<\/em>, is a collection of realistic sculptures either covered in or made of materials like Swarovski<\/a> crystals\u2014including a skull<\/a>, a toilet<\/a> and a noose and stool<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bolla modeled the crystal-covered chair after the subject of an 1888 painting<\/a> by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh<\/a>. As Carlon tells the Italian magazine Fanpage<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Giusy Dente, Bolla\u2019s piece is light and ethereal\u2014and because it lacks an internal structure, it\u2019s also very fragile.<\/p>\n

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Van Gogh’s Chair<\/em>, 1888<\/p>\n

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was displayed on a small platform, and signs in both Italian and English warned visitors not to touch or sit on the work. The two museumgoers waited for a security guard to leave the room before accidentally breaking the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an idiotic thing to do,\u201d Bolla tells Fanpage<\/em><\/a>, per a translation by Agence France-Presse<\/a>. Still, the artist sees a \u201cpositive side\u201d to the event. \u201cIt\u2019s like a kind of performance,\u201d he adds. \u201cOrdinary people can do it too, not just artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolla\u2019s art has been vandalized before. \u201cProbably my works seem so true and so real that people think they can appropriate them,\u201d he tells Fanpage<\/em>, per a translation by the Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The chair has been repaired and is now back on display.<\/p>\n

Andrea Pugiotto \/ Palazzo Maffei<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the incident took place in April, the museum released the security footage (with the couple\u2019s faces blurred) earlier this month, once the artwork had been repaired and put back on display.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks the same, but once an artwork is damaged it\u2019s not really the same,\u201d Carlon tells the Times<\/em>, adding that its newfound fame may make up for its lost value.<\/p>\n

Museum officials declined to provide the artwork\u2019s estimated value, according to BBC News<\/a>\u2019 Joshua Cheetham. Carlon tells the broadcaster that most museumgoers are well-behaved. But at the same time, she wants to emphasize that \u201canyone should enter art places\u2014or museums or churches, wherever art is displayed\u2014in a more respectful way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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