The Palazzo Maffei museum in the Italian city of Verona called for “respect for art” as a visitor filmed on CCTV, breaking a chair covered with glittering Swarovski Crystals.
The footage was captured in April and showed a man taking a photo of a woman pretending to sit on an artwork on Italian artist Nicola Bolla, known as the “van gogh” chair, and the man then sat there in person. The chair folded under his weight, causing him to stagger against the wall. The couple then rushed out of the room.
Palazzo Maffei recently posted CCTV footage on social media until recently, calling the bill an “irresponsible gesture.” Museum officials said the culprit fled before staff realized the chair was broken. Police have since received notifications, but the two suspects are still unidentified.
“Sometimes we lose our brains to take pictures and we don’t think about the consequences,” museum director Vanessa Carlon said in a statement. “Of course, it was an accident, but it was not accidental for these two people to not talk to us. It was a nightmare for any museum.”
Bolla made the chair with a polished machine cut glass and decorated it with crystals. This is a tribute to a simple chair by Vincent Van Gogh in 1888, titled Van Gogh’s chair. The museum reportedly declined to disclose the value of Bora’s works.
“There is a warning on the chair that warns people not to touch, of course, it is placed on the pedestal, so it’s obvious that this is not a real chair,” Carlotta Menegazzo, an art historian who works in the Palazzo Maffei, told The The The. BBC. The chair may look solid, but it is hollow and held in foil, she said.
Since then, the artwork has been restored and re-appreciated in the museum. It opened five years ago and its collection includes works by Pablo Picasso and ancient Egyptian objects.
Karen added that she hopes the accident encourages people to see “in a more respectful way.”
“The art of respect and love must be received because it is very fragile,” she said.
