Watch: $200K Art Installation Comes Crashing Down In Selfie Gone Awry

LOS ANGELES, CA — Imagine how mortified you’d be if you were the self-absorbed klutz so intent on getting the perfect selfie that you accidentally bumped into an art exhibit, destroying $200,000 worth of art. Now imagine your fail was caught on video — and that video was played on repeat hundreds of thousands of times across the web.

One poor woman woke up this week to find herself in exactly that position. The young woman has made international headlines after a video of her knocking over an installation by Hong Kong-based British artist Simon Birch at the 14th Factory (located near Dodger Stadium in Lincoln Heights) was posted to YouTube on Thursday.

In less than two days, nearly 1 million people had viewed the video — many of whom derided the selfie-taker as everything that’s wrong with young people today.

But is the video, posted online by a friend of Birch and included below, really what it seems?

The video appears to show surveillance footage from Birch's exhibit at the 14th Factory. Dozens of delicate crowns are perched upon pedestals and lined up like dominos, as part of Birch’s “Hypercaine” installation.

The installation was billed like so: “Inside a serene space, singular objects rest on plinths: these are crowns, or at least some resemblance of what a crown might be, presented as precious trophies or boons.”

But not for long. Here comes Little Miss Selfie, crouching down for the perfect shot — then bumping into a pedestal and sending the whole row of crowns crashing down.

Skeptics have found it odd, though, that the gallery's pedestals were stacked so close together, yet weren't bolted down — making an accident almost inevitable. Many are now accusing the artist and the gallery of staging the selfie fail as a publicity stunt.

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Still, Birch insists the video wasn’t staged. Here’s his version of the incident:

"A girl came in and, though we tell everyone to be careful, the staff was in conversation with someone at the time and not paying attention. She crouched down to get a selfie with the crown and stumbled. She was horrified and super upset and we took down her details but decided not to take action as it was clearly an accident and she's a student. Plus we are a non-profit so it's not like we could afford to sue her anyway.

"Many of the crowns were OK, there were 11 on that row, some gold plated, some nylon and some other mixed materials. We fixed up most with a bit of glue, and only 1 super delicate one was totally f----d.

"They really are priced at around 20K each in line with the going rate for my work, but of course, the Mona Lisa could be seen as $50 worth of paint and canvas...value in the art world is a complicated thing.

"People ask why the plinths were not bolted down. Well people are warned to be cautious in that room but the idea was they should be exposed and fragile. They are crowns, and crowns, symbols of power, are fragile things. A well-timed selfie could bring down a president, so why not a crown or two?

"It's surprising that it's blown up, this incident, no one mentions the Ferrari that we destroyed on purpose in the next room or the 300 guys fighting on film, or the stack of massive airplane tails or the 2001 room… Another wacky day at the 14th factory."

The 14th Factory, a nonprofit space founded by Birch, bills itself as “a monumental, multiple-media, socially engaged art and documentary experience... over three acres of an empty industrial warehouse and lot on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles.” The space was originally going to open in Manhattan, but moved to Los Angeles amid much fanfare.

Upon entering the warehouse, visitors are asked to sign waivers to participate in a documentary being filmed on location — but the star of the latest hit film out of the 14th Factory may not have known what she was signing up for.

Lead photo: YouTube screengrab