The following story appeared in yesterday's Guardian, as well as in several other London newspapers.
It is a shame that a work of art has been accidentally destroyed, but to me it looks like a bedpost!
It is interesting that the Royal Academy did not allow any photographs of the shattered sculpture and threatened legal action against one person who had taken a picture of it.
VISITOR SHATTERS ARTWORK
Gallery-going is not usually a perilous experience, unless you lose your balance near a nine-foot tall ceramic totem as one unfortunate visitor did last Saturday.
The sculpture was part of an exhibit in a display at the Royal Academy's summer exhibition curated by Tracey Emin, who described it as a star of the show.
It was one of five totems by Costa Rican artist Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez, collectively titled Frauleins Christina, Panthea, Zenobia, Semiramis and Guinevere. The work was one of six shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award, a £25,000 prize for the most distinguished work in the exhibition, but missed out to Jeff Koons' Cracked Egg (Blue).
Alas the five frauleins are now four after a visitor lost her balance on Saturday, sending the piece to the floor and smashing it into hundreds of pieces.
A spokeswoman for the Royal Academy confirmed there had been an accident and conservators were deciding on the best course of action.
One witness was Claire San Martin, who did not see the accident but heard it. "It was an enormous crash," she said. "Like pottery smashing. Everyone was just standing around not knowing what to do at all, and one woman in a white top, who I assumed had knocked it over, was standing with her hand on her head.
"After a while a person who was in charge of the room ran off to get help and someone came in with a dustpan and brush to clean it up. Before that people were still coming in to the room and thought it was part of the exhibition. They were taking pictures. I think they thought it was meant to be like that. It was quite funny.
"Two guards came in to keep people away from it and an official came to talk to the woman who knocked it over. It was completely smashed. There were pieces everywhere."
A representative for the artist said Fernandez did not wish to comment.
