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Koons Versailles Stay Extended

Published: November 6, 2008
PARIS— American Pop artist Jeff Koons's protest-drawing exhibition at France's Palace of Versailles has proven so popular that organizers have decided to extend its run, reports Canada's CBC News.

The exhibition of 17 Koons sculptures, including the porcelain Michael Jackson and Bubbles and the monumental, brightly colored steel Balloon Dog and Lobster, has drawn more than 250,000 people to the 17th-century royal chateau since it opened on September 10. Scheduled to run until December 14, the show will now stay open through the holiday season, closing on January 4.

On its opening day, the show drew protesters who said that showing Koons's monumental Pop works was disrespectful to French heritage. "He can have an exhibition anywhere he wants, but not at Versailles,'' said one protester. "This is not art. Art involves history, research. To blow up balloons and put them here and there, no.''

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