Man Smashes Porcelain Ai Weiwei Sculpture At Italian Museum
HuffPost
The Chinese dissident artist's sculpture weighed about 200 pounds and on display in Bologna.
A large porcelain sculpture by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei was left shattered Friday after a man smashed the artwork on display at a museum in Bologna, Italy.
Ai shared security footage of the act of vandalism on his piece, titled “Porcelain Cube,” and video of the suspect’s arrest outside the Palazzo Fava museum on his Instagram with a message to people who destroy art.
“You are literally ruining the things that make this world beautiful and cultured. Instead of destroying things in museums, how about you go destroy things actually hurting our planet and societies?” wrote Ai, a vocal critic of the Chinese government who’s been essentially exiled from his country.
“Piss on the front doors of the rich, sabotage industry that harms us all,” he continued. “Stop destroying our shared history and fight the people actually oppressing you.”
The security footage shows a man smashing Ai’s blue-and-white porcelain sculpture, then raising the shards above his head before being tackled by museum security personnel. His motive remains unknown.
