Van Gogh’s Chair by Vincent van Gogh
A museum visitor has sat on and broken a one-of-a-kind crystal-coated chair based on a painting by Vincent van Gogh.
The Palazzo Maffei is a baroque palace in the Italian city of Verona that now houses an art museum. Recently, the museum placed a work by the Italian artist Nicola Bolla on display in the galleries. Bolla’s work relies on the Duchampian idea of finding art in everyday objects, elevating the mundane into the spectacular. Bolla created this sculpture from polished, machine-cut glass, shaping it into the form of a chair. The work was also completely coated in hundreds of Swarovski crystals, a technique the artist has applied to other objects, including skulls and toilets. However, the sculpture at the Palazzo Maffei is a tribute to an artistic influence. The chair’s design is based on an 1888 painting by the post-Impressionist master Vincent van Gogh, now held by the National Gallery in London. I don’t think many people would consider sitting on a chair made of glass, but that didn’t stop a visiting couple back in April.
Though the incident occurred a few months ago, the Palazzo Maffei only released the CCTV footage last Thursday. The security camera video shows a pair of museum visitors in the gallery taking turns photographing each other. One after the other, they bent down slightly to hover over the chair, perhaps pretending they were about to sit down. One of them, however, seemed to think that this museum piece made of glass could support their weight. They sat down on the chair’s edge, causing the front legs to buckle. The visitor stumbled backward into the wall, assessed the damage for a few seconds, and then hastily left the gallery. According to staff, the duo left the museum immediately without informing anyone of what had happened. The Palazzo Maffei quickly notified the authorities, but they have yet to identify the two individuals caught on tape.
In a post on Instagram, the Palazzo Maffei announced that the chair had been restored and put back on display in the galleries. The museum also released a statement calling the incident an opportunity for them to educate the public about “the fragility of art and the need to take care of it.” You’d think that when visiting a museum or a gallery, refraining from touching the art is just one of those unspoken rules that everyone understands. But just like how a restaurant bathroom has an employees must wash hands sign, telling people they can’t touch anything in a museum is just one more thing we do for that one person in every hundred who just can’t help themselves.