Yellow Pumpkin, the six-foot tall sculpture by Yayoi Kusama, was hit by strong winds and a sudden high tide after a typhoon in Japan on Sunday evening (8.Naoshima island, where the famous statue is located.
Videos show the artwork being swept away from the pier, flipped over, and tossed over the bank as the waves whirl it around. The yellow and black dotted gourd has now been removed for restoration, according to the Benesse Art Site of Naoshima.
Installed at the top of the pier in 1994, the pumpkin is one of the main attractions on the islands of Kagawa Prefecture, boasting several works of art. In 2019, it was removed before Typhoon Krosa hit the coast. One video showed a team lifting Yellow Pumpkin together and carrying it down a dock before loading it into a delivery truck.
Kusama’s pumpkins have already suffered other damage: an exhibition visitor was stepped on in 2017 and leaned over to take a selfie.
The Tate Modern is currently showing an exhibition dedicated to Kusama that includes two of the Japanese artist’s career-defining Infinity Rooms.
In other Kusama gourd news, a German heiress recently pleaded guilty in a London court to defrauding a buyer of $ 1.4 million in connection with the alleged sale of a piece by the Japanese sculptor.
Watch the pumpkin fall over in the video below.
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