Children Visiting Hoam Art Museum, 'Tuk' Instead of Phones... What About Multi-Billion Won Artwork?

Fortunately, No Damage to the Painting
Exhibition of the Artwork Scheduled to Resume on the 24th

At Hoam Art Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, the first solo exhibition in Korea of Swiss artist Nicolas Party (44), known as the "Wizard of Pastels," is currently underway. During the exhibition, a multi-billion won artwork was accidentally dropped on the floor by a young child visitor. Although no serious damage occurred, the exhibition was temporarily suspended as a result.

According to Hoam Art Museum, the incident occurred on the 18th during the Chuseok holiday period when a child visitor, walking while looking at a mobile phone with their back to the artwork, accidentally touched the exhibition pedestal. The artwork that fell to the floor at that time was "Three-Panel Painting with Trees."
[Photo by Yonhap News]

According to the Hoam Art Museum, the incident happened on the 18th during the Chuseok holiday period when a young child visitor, walking while looking at a mobile phone with their back to the artwork, accidentally touched the exhibition pedestal. The artwork that fell to the floor was the triptych titled "Tree." It is a triptych painted on three arch-shaped folding screens resembling a portable altar. This is one of Party’s representative formats, also called a "cabinet work." It is characterized by being installed on a wooden pedestal painted to resemble marble.

Fortunately, there was no major damage from the accident. The museum explained, "Upon inspection, there was no damage to the artwork, but two screws on the hinges connecting the paintings came loose," and added, "We have taken measures in consultation with the artist." The triptych "Tree," which had its exhibition suspended, will be displayed again to visitors from the 24th after the pedestal is repaired.

On the morning of the 29th of last month, artist Nicolas Party explained his work at the preview meeting for the exhibition "Dust" held at Hoam Art Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and currently active in New York, Party is an artist famous for his surreal and dreamlike paintings. He reinterprets the tradition of pastel painting, which was popular in 18th-century Europe but later forgotten, creating pastel murals on an architectural scale. Party’s works are traded for tens of billions of won in the art market. Earlier this month, one of his triptychs was sold for $350,000 (approximately 468 million won) at the Frieze Seoul art fair. This exhibition, which opened on the 31st of last month, is his first solo exhibition in Korea.