LONDON.- A visitor to the Royal Academy fell on a 9-foot-tall sculpture by Costa Rican artist Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez and destroyed it.

The sculpture was one of five totems collectively titled Frauleins Christina, Panthea, Zenobia, Semiramis and Guinevere. The Guardian reported that, "The work was one of six shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award, a £25,000 prize for the most distinguished work in the exhibition, but missed out to Jeff Koons' Cracked Egg (Blue)".

Visitors who entered the room in the Summer Exhibition following the incident thought the broken work was part of the display and took photographs of it.

The artist had talked with museum officials about the best way to protect the sculptures. They decided that the section would be cordoned off.

The Summer Exhibition 2008 had got through its busiest period and it is particularly disappointing that this has happened on a fairly quiet Saturday afternoon," the Royal Academy of Arts told the BBC. "(The Academy) is arranging for a conservator to come in to assess the damage so that we can inform our insurers."