PARIS - The world-renowned Pompidou Center of Paris, which set out in March to celebrate the work of Los Angeles artists, has instead accidentally destroyed two of their works — which fell from museum walls — and slightly damaged a third.
The lost artworks were a 1971 untitled resin piece by Peter Alexander and a 1967 Plexiglas work by artist Craig Kauffman called Untitled Wall Relief.
"We deeply regret the incidents," the Pompidou said in a statement. "In the last 30 years, we have organized 20 exhibits a year, and it is extremely rare that such incidents happen at the Pompidou Center."
Alexander's piece, loaned by New York's Franklin Parrasch Gallery, fell from the wall the night before the opening, in early March. Kauffman's piece, worth about $70,000, shattered in mid-July, just before the exhibit closed, the museum said.
