KEY POINTS

  • Lesper tried to show disdain for contemporary art display
  • Placed soda can on top of work to take a picture
  • Display collapsed to the floor
  • Art consisted of stone, soccer ball, etc inside a glass sheet valued at $20K

A Mexico art critic accidentally destroyed a contemporary art piece when she acted upon her disdain for it.

On Saturday, Avelina Lésper decided to place a soda can on top of the piece displayed at the Zona Maco art fair in Mexico City and take a photo of it when the piece unexpectedly shattered and collapsed to the floor.

According to Fox News, the art piece was created by Mexican artist Gabriel Rico who wanted to contrast man-made objects with objects found in nature and this particular display consisted of a stone, a soccer ball and other random objects suspended inside encased with a sheet of glass.

“It was like the work heard my comment and felt what I thought of it,” Lésper said in a video statement for Milenio, a Mexican media group that publishes her columns. “The work shattered into pieces and collapsed and fell on the floor.”

Upon the display’s destruction, Lésper was told that the piece cost $20,000.

The incident sparked mixed reactions with some people like Alfonso Miranda, the director of the Soumaya art museum in Mexico, calling it a tragedy while others praised it as a performance, and a way to pan the sale of the art that was made of used and found items.

The artist had not yet released any comment.

A man takes a photo of the restored original -- which took the artists 12 years of painstaking work -- at Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts
A man takes a photo of the restored original -- which took the artists 12 years of painstaking work -- at Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts AFP / Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD
Mexico