AN AMERICAN art exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris proved to be a smash hit — literally. Two valuable works were destroyed when they fell off the walls and the American owners and artists are not happy.

“It’s extremely upsetting,” said Michael Goven, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which owned one of the works. Craig Kauffman’s Untitled Wall Relief was a 4ft by 6ft piece of Plexiglas painted with acrylic lacquer.

The other work was Untitled, by Peter Alexander, an 8ft black polyester bar that fell during the night before the show opened in March.

As US art experts sounded off in the Los Angeles Times, the Pompidou Centre expressed deep regret for the two incidents in its epic and widely praised exhibition, Los Angeles 1955-1985 — Birth of an Artistic Capital, which has just closed. “We take utmost care in hanging works of art and we don’t have this sort of thing happen. We are extremely sorry,” said Nasser Roya, a spokeswoman for the centre.

She said that the cause appeared to be the fragile nature of the materials used by the artists. “Both works were in experimental materials at the time that they were made (1967 and 1971). Obviously some time has passed since then.” The works had been exhibited according to instructions from the US artists and owners, who had supervised the hanging.

The Los Angeles museum pointed out that Kauffman’s work had survived several earthquakes over three decades in its care. The work was “a terribly important piece, for the artist, the institution and the community”, said Lynn Zelevansky, who heads the contemporary art department.

Lyn Kienholz, a California art official who helped to organise the Paris show, said: “It’s tragic. It never should have happened. There is no excuse.”

Alexander, whose work was lent by the Franklin Parrasch Gallery in New York, said that he had been deeply attached to it. “I don’t know whether it’s arrogance or passivity, but I’ve never dealt with anybody or any institution that works this way.”

Alexander was paid £10,500 in compensation and insurance companies are to reimburse the Los Angeles museum for the Kauffman. The Pompidou Centre is investigating the two accidents, as well as minor damage, since repaired, to a work by Robert Irwin on loan from the Eli Broad Foundation of Los Angeles. The exhibition won critical acclaim as the largest exhibition of works by Los Angeles contemporary artists ever assembled.

It included 350 works by 85 artists, from the Beat Generation to Dennis Hopper.

• Russian police hunting treasures stolen from the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg recovered an icon yesterday after an anonymous telephone call led them to a rubbish bin outside their office.

  Museum officials suspect the disappearance of the exhibits, mainly silver and enamel pieces from the Middle Ages and the 19th century, was an inside job because only a few people had access to them. (Reuters)

  ART ATTACKS

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