ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Imagine a nightmare set in an art gallery, only it's real.
STEPHEN GAMSON: I was pointing to this Jeff Koons balloon dog sculpture and showing my friend. And just as I said that, the piece fell over, and it shattered into a thousand pieces.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
That is artist and collector Stephen Gamson describing what happened last week when someone bumped into the pedestal and the sculpture toppled at Art Wynwood in Miami.
SHAPIRO: It's chrome blue and looked like the kind of dog a clown might make from a balloon at a kid's birthday party but made of porcelain.
GAMSON: More people were crowding around, and it just seemed almost like a - like, kind of like how a car accident draws a big crowd.
KELLY: After another porcelain balloon dog was smashed to bits in 2016, Koons told Page Six it was not a big deal. He said, quote, "it's a shame when anything like that happens, but, you know, it's just a porcelain plate."
SHAPIRO: Well, this dog-shaped plate attracted a lot of attention. As gallery crews came by with dust pans and boxes, Gamson started filming the aftermath on Instagram.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GAMSON: If you want to sell the tail...
KELLY: That is Gamson asking gallery workers if he could buy a piece. Intact, the balloon dog sculpture is worth $42,000. No word on the price of pieces.
SHAPIRO: Gamson says he's been collecting art since he was 17.
GAMSON: I used to write letters to Keith Haring, and I became a pretty significant Keith Haring collector. I also have gone dumpster diving for art, you know, places where I know famous artists have worked. And I don't do that so much anymore, but (laughter)...
SHAPIRO: Gamson says he doesn't really have a plan for the pieces if he acquires them.
GAMSON: I was thinking I might put them in a - in some sort of a plexi (ph) box with a plaque on them. They could be introduced into a piece of art that I create myself. There's a lot of options.
KELLY: A pile of bright blue porcelain shards, just the latest spin on that age-old question - is it art? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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