The controversial smashing by a local artist of one of celebrated artist Ai Weiwei's vases at a private art installation had helped the latter drive the point of his latest exhibit home - the issue of placing a dollar value to art.
The New Yorker said in its report that last week, fifty-one-year-old artist Maximo Caminero walked into the Pérez Art Museum in Miami and picked up one of Ai's vases on display and dropped it to pieces at the protests of a museum guard. Caminero reportedly claimed that the act was to protest the museum's decision to feature a foreigner like Ai as opposed to local artists. The New Yorker said Caminero waited calmly for authorities to arrest him, but the latter are in a conundrum as they cannot arrest the artist on the grounds that the dollar value of Ai's vase was in question.
The magazine said Ai, who is also a human rights activist, has much of his work reflect the ridiculousness of how collectors put price on cultural objects. Caminero's act, on the other hand, had helped shed light on how museums allocate most of their budgets in favor of celebrity artists as oppose to highlighting artistic talent from home.
Despite repeating headlines across all major print and online publications, deputy director Leann Standish at the museum insisted that the vase is not worth a million dollars. Taking into consideration the facts that the vase, which was reportedly made in the Han Dynasty, was painted over by Ai to depict a cheap, modern-day receptacle.
Standish said that Caminero remained to be arrested as the insurers of Pérez Art Museum are still in the process of doing an appraisal of the art. Moreover, she said that typical travelling exhibitions like Ai's are insured by the whole, and not per piece.
Standish told The New Yorker that the incident, nonetheless, helped pushed Ai's purpose of the art installation. It has allowed for a dialogue to get started about what makes art valuable, and that is a good thing. I've seen what can happen to a number."
