Miami Artist Destroys $1M Ai Weiwei Vase In 'Spontaneous' Protest

The Pérez Art Museum Miami is currently home to an exhibition displaying the "multifaceted artistic oeuvre" of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. On Sunday, a local painter walked into the museum and smashed part of that oeuvre to pieces. He did it, he now says, to stand up for local artists.

"I did it for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here," Maximo Caminero told The Miami New Times in an interview after the incident. "They have spent so many millions now on international artists. It's the same political situation over and over again. I've been here for 30 years and it's always the same."

What Caminero didn't know: the vases are thousands of years old, dating from China's Neolithic period. To create his work, Ai had dipped the vases in brightly colored industrial paint. According to the New Times, the vase smashed by Caminero was valued at $1 million.

Caminero said he admires Ai's work, and that he "had no idea the vase had any value." He is now facing charges of felony criminal mischief.

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