--- title: A Selfie-Taking Museum Visitor Destroyed $200,000 in Art description: It all went down, domino-style, at an exhibition of modernist crowns at an L.A. art space. canonical: https://time.com/4858769/selfie-museum-damage/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-14T18:12:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:45:25.225Z og:title: Woman Ruins $200,000 Worth of Art While Posing for a Selfie og:description: Be careful where you selfie og:url: https://time.com/4858769/selfie-museum-damage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Woman Ruins $200,000 Worth of Art While Posing for a Selfie twitter:description: Be careful where you selfie twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch a Woman Accidentally Ruin $200,000 Worth of Art While Posing for a Great Selfie  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 14, 2017 6:12 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 14, 2017 6:12 PM UTC Be careful where you [selfie](http://time.com/4856490/naruto-monkey-selfie-case-appeals-court/). That’s the lesson learned by a visitor to Los Angeles’s [The 14th Factory](http://the14thfactory.com/), a temporary art exhibit and factory space currently hosting a show of stylized crown sculptures. But a few weeks ago, one [snap-happy](http://time.com/4718143/selfie-exhibition-saatchi-gallery-london/) show attendee caused as much as $200,000 in damage when she toppled, domino style, a series of plinths, Gloria Yu one of the artists involved told [Hyperallergic](https://hyperallergic.com/390387/posing-for-photo-gallery-visitor-topples-row-of-pedestals-like-dominos/). Three of the sculptures are now permanently damaged, [according to](https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/woman-wrecks-200000-worth-of-art-while-trying-to-take-selfie/) a spokeswoman. While it’s unclear whether this “art” or life, you can see it all go down in a security video from the space, in which the woman appears at the far end of a row of plinths to take that photo — and seems to lose her footing. Down go all ten of the plinths, taking the art with them. The 14th Factory describes itself as a “monumental, multiple-media, socially engaged art and documentary experience,” the brainchild of Hong Kong-based UK-born artist Simon Birch. “In entering The 14th Factory, the visitor is transformed into a central player in a collaboratively fabricated adventure and motion picture that engages and unfolds,” it states on the website. Perhaps, in this case, the visitor was a little bit _too_ much of a central player. Then again, her choice to selfie may be understandable: she was most likely trying to frame herself against one of the modernist reimagined crowns for a better shot. Or maybe she read [this review](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-14th-factory-instagram-20170501-htmlstory.html) from the _L.A. Times_, which boldly predicted the inclination towards selfie-taking in the social-media-oriented show. In any case, it looks like the show is still up and running through the end of July. Show tickets are around $18 generally, although they’ll need quite a few new visitors to recoup that $200,000 cost. > [](https://twitter.com/the14thfactory/status/885640246775300097) A Selfie-Taking Museum Visitor Destroyed $200,000 in Art ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4858769/selfie-museum-damage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4858769/selfie-museum-damage/"},"headline":"Watch a Woman Accidentally Ruin $200,000 Worth of Art While Posing for a Great Selfie","datePublished":"2017-07-14T18:12:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:45:25.225Z","description":"It all went down, domino-style, at an exhibition of modernist crowns at an L.A. art space.","url":"https://time.com/4858769/selfie-museum-damage/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Bizarre","Art"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4858769/selfie-museum-damage/","name":"Watch a Woman Accidentally Ruin $200,000 Worth of Art While Posing for a Great Selfie"}}]}] ```