Dec 11, 2007 5:27 pm US/Eastern
Miami Art Gallery Suffers Big Loss In Fire
An advertising balloon may might have sparked the fire
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art was damaged Tuesday morning, when fire ripped through a Miami art gallery.
The Harold Golen Art Gallery is located at N.W 29th Street and 6th Avenue in Miami and firefighters were called to the scene around 3:30 a.m.
When firefighters arrived and tried to fight the fire from inside the building, the roof began to collapse. All of the firefighters made it safely outside and contained the fire from outside the building.
Fire officials believe the fire was started when an advertising balloon attached to the building came into contact with electrical wires. Firefighters removed the balloon Tuesday afternoon to prevent it from continuing to strike the electric wires, the balloon was specifically put up to promote the gallery during Art Basel week.
"With the heavy winds last night, it's been knocking the wires, so that's a good indication that it may have shortage the power in the circuit board inside of the building," Ignatius Carroll of the Miami Fire department told CBS4's Sharrie Williams.
Owner Harold Golan is heartbroken about the damage gallery as well about the lost artwork. Golan was too emotional to talk to cameras, but those close to him know how much pride he took in his gallery.
"We were very, very happy about what is happening during Art Basel in fact we had a number of people who came to complement on the gallery," said Juraj Kojs, Golan's boyfriend. "This fire is quite a disappointment as you can imagine, but is also a promise that we will rebuild."
Some of the art inside was featured at last week's Art Basel events. Many of the pieces inside cost $100,000 or more. The Harold Golen Gallery was opened in September of 2007.
There were no injuries reported.
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