NEW YORK, NY.- A reception for a new exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Bologna, Italy, was disrupted Friday when a man walked in and smashed a large porcelain sculpture, leaving museum guests and the artist stunned.

The incident, which occurred during a reception for “Ai Weiwei. Who Am I?,” the artist’s first solo exhibition in the city, sent guests at the Palazzo Fava scattering and left the sculpture shattered on the floor.

Footage of the incident captured by security cameras and later shared on Ai’s Instagram account shows the man forcefully pushing over the sculpture and then raising its broken pieces above his head before being tackled by museum guards.

Ai said in an emailed statement Monday that the loud sounds of the sculpture shattering made him first think of a terrorist attack or an explosion.

“When I learned that it was my large porcelain artwork that had been destroyed, I was astonished,” he said. “I never imagined that a piece nearly 100 kilos in weight could be damaged so easily.”

Arturo Galansino, the exhibition’s curator at the Palazzo Fava, said by phone Monday that he was upstairs at the event when he heard a “big noise” and was quickly alerted that a work had been broken.

The piece, titled Porcelain Cube and weighing more than 200 pounds, was displayed on the ground floor of the museum, he said. He was unsure of the sculpture’s monetary value.

“I was very, very disappointed and sad and shocked,” Galansino said, adding that he believed the destruction of the sculpture was intentional. The episode somewhat ruined the atmosphere of the evening, he added.

Left behind were dozens of broken blue and white porcelain pieces, which were eventually neatly arranged on a pedestal and later covered with a sheet.

Ai noted that acts of vandalism in museums are not uncommon, regardless of the reason behind them, but he said he was grateful that no one, including the man behind Friday’s incident, was physically harmed.

In the aftermath, the artist shared a short video of the man being arrested. Local news outlets identified him as Vaclav Pisvejc, a Czech-born aspiring artist who has developed a reputation for similar stunts.

“Unfortunately, the person who did this accident, it’s not the first time that he commit this crime,” Galansino said. He said he was unsure how the man was able to access the event, which was invite-only.

“He’s a person that likes to gain attention disturbing exhibitions and being in contact with worldwide artists,” Galansino said.

In 2018, Pisvejc attacked artist Marina Abramovic in Florence, Italy, by slamming a paper portrait he had made over her head. After that incident, Abramovic asked him why he had acted out. He responded, “I had to do it for my art.”

Other incidents involving Pisvejc have featured nudity and denunciation. He has also been accused of vandalizing with spray paint a statue by Swiss artist Urs Fischer in the central Piazza della Signoria.

And last year, he was arrested after he climbed a statue in Florence while naked with the word “censored” written on his body.

Back at the museum, the exhibition officially opened Saturday and will go on as planned. The porcelain cube, however, will not be replaced.

“The process of an artwork’s destruction and its true meaning happen simultaneously, and even if a replacement is made, it cannot restore the existential value of the original,” Ai said in his statement. “I believe it should remain as it is now, a blank space where it once stood, with a photograph of the piece prior to its destruction serving as an explanation.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.