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China artist's $15,000 Lego artwork destroyed by little boy
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Mr Zhao posing with his Lego sculpture, which was smashed to pieces by a Chinese boy on Sunday. (Weibo via The Straits Times/-)
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Lego sculpture that took three days to build was smashed to pieces by a Chinese boy within an hour of it being put on display on Sunday.
Mr Zhao, a young artist from the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, spent more than 100,000 yuan (US$15,198) on the sculpture of a fox named Nick, from the animated film Zootopia.
It took him three days and nights to build the 1.8m statue, which was put on display at a Lego expo held in Ningbo.
However, it did not stand for long. Within an hour of the expo's opening, a four-year-old placed his hand on the figure and accidentally pushed it over while posing for a photo.
This was despite the fact that a "no touching" sign was placed near the artwork, and all the sculptures at the exhibition were separated from visitors with ropes.
(Read also: Lego opens world's largest store at Shanghai Disney)
According to Metro, the child's parents apologized and wanted to pay for the damage but Mr Zhao refused to accept it, saying the young boy's actions were unintentional.
"The child did not intend to break it," he said, according to CCTVNews.
The artist was crushed; his devastation apparent from the photos he uploaded of him creating his masterpiece on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
He also uploaded a photo which captured the aftermath of the accident, with his intricate sculpture completely reduced to rubble.
Mr Zhao reportedly said: "It took a lot of effort building the sculpture, especially the eyes. I had to change it a lot of times."
According to BBC News, the hashtag #ManSpends3DaysAndNightsBuildingBlocks has been used over 13,000 times on Chinese social media after the accident.
This was not the first time an artwork was destroyed by visitors.
Just last week, CCTV footage of two boys fracturing a glass sculpture at the Shanghai Museum of Glass in China was released.
(Read also: From Lego to Barbie: Meet 4 adults who are into toy collecting)
The adults accompanying the children were seen filming them and choosing not to intervene as the kids started touching the sculpture, which is titled Angel Is Waiting.
Its creator, Ms Shelly Xue, spent 27 months on it and completed it as a dedication to her newborn daughter.
Instead of fixing the damage, she decided to rename it Broken.
Another piece of art was unintentionally damaged in October last year when cleaners at the Museion museum in Bolzano, Italy, accidentally threw several items from a modern art installation into bin bags. They thought that the items were from the aftermath of a party.
The artwork, titled "Where Shall We Go Dancing Tonight?" and created by artists Sara Goldschmied and Eleonora Chiari, comprised confetti, empty bottles and cigarette butts which were used to represent the decadence of Italy in the 1980s.
