- A couple mistakenly disfigured a painting on display at a mall in Seoul, South Korea.
- The painting by JonOne, an American graffiti artist, is worth $ 440,000, according to ABC News.
- The canvas work was displayed with paint containers and brushes, but it was not meant to be interactive.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
A couple visiting an art gallery at a mall in Seoul, South Korea, mistakenly vandalized a canvas by American graffiti artist JonOne, the head of the exhibition told Reuters on Friday.
The couple, who are in their 20s, were visiting the exhibition on March 28 when they mistook the paint containers and brushes – which were intentionally displayed in front of JonOne’s artwork – as signs for the public to contribute, according to ABC News.
A surveillance camera captured the couple taking paint and adding it to the artwork. Their marks can be seen in the form of dark green patches, ABC News reported.
The couple added these dark green stains to JonOne’s painting, the gallery team told ABC News.
Minwoo Park / Ruters
The police analyzed the surveillance footage and arrested the couple at the mall, and they were later released without charge, Kang Wook, CEO of the Contents Creator of Culture, who co-organized the screening, told ABC News.
“They thought they could do this as a participatory art and made a mistake,” Kang told the channel. “We are currently discussing with the artist about the possibility of restoring it.”
JonOne, whose full name is John Andrew Perello, was born in New York and now lives in Paris.
The artist painted the piece, “Untitled”, in 2016 in front of an audience in Seoul.
At the 2016 live painting exhibition, JonOne intentionally kept the paint containers and brushes in front of the final work. The same props were displayed in the current gallery to show the story of JonOne’s work.
JonOne’s agency told ABC News that the painting is worth $ 440,000.
JonOne poses with one of his works in Lisbon on September 10, 2020.
PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP via Getty Images
A representative for the artist also told ABC News that JonOne “does not plan to respond to the incident.”
According to Reuters, after the two visitors added paint to the graffiti, the gallery added a barrier and a “do not touch” sign in front of it.
JonOne representatives did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.