Toddler sends €50,000 sculpture flying at Art Basel

It’s every parent’s nightmare: take your toddler to an art fair and watch in horror as they knock a pricey piece of art off its pedestal. According to a report on the Swiss news agency NAU, that is exactly what happened to one mother at Art Basel last week as her three-year-old daughter knocked Fliege (Fly) by the German artist Katharina Fritsch (b.1956) off its plinth. According to the NAU , the CHF56,000 (€50,000) plastic sculpture was being exhibited by the US gallery Matthew Marks and the wings fell off during the incident. However, an Art Basel spokeswoman says that while the fair is “aware of the incident” it was “informed by the gallery that the work was not damaged” and declined to share more detail on the incident at the request of the gallery. Matthew Marks Gallery did not respond immediately to a request for comment.