A “drunken” foreign tourist was blamed for destroying a public art installation in Bangkok over the weekend.
A sculpture of a water buffalo called Kwai Calm (“calm buffalo”) was left in pieces after a British tourist attempted to climb atop it Friday night in front of the Samyan Mitrtown complex on Rama IV Road.
The sculpture, created by artist Maitree Siriboon, was part of the Bangkok Art Biennale running through February at 11 venues across Bangkok.
The tourists were called out by the festival’s chief executive and artistic director himself, who called it a “sad day.”
“A sad day to report that Kwai Calm by Maitree Siriboon, whose albino water buffalo placed at Samyan Midtown so much loved and appreciated by passerby and art visitors, have been destroyed,” Apinan Poshyananda wrote on his Facebook on Saturday.
He then went on in detail about the tourists who were to blame.
“Last night around 2am a group of English and German tourists were having a great time. Joshua Antoni Burgoyne, 34, a drunken English lad who was especially energetic, tried to climb on the sculpture. He failed in his first attempt then he tried again causing the artwork to collapse into pieces.”
According to Apinan, the British tourist and his friends were taken to the police station where they refused to apologize or pay any compensation.
The remains of the Kwai Calm will be left at the site for a few days, Apinan said, for people who want “to say goodbye to the artwork.”
Kwai Calm had been displayed at The Peninsula Bangkok in October before it was relocated to its official venue at Samyan Mitrtown.
RIP, Kwai Calm.
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