The realistic sculpture, which is made from packing tape and foam filler, depicts the gallery owner’s sister passed out in a plate of soup, according to Soho gallery Laz Emporium
A realistic-looking sculpture recently caused quite a bit of confusion at a London art gallery.
Last month, police broke down the doors at Laz Emporium after seeing what they thought was “an unconscious woman slumped over a table in the locked-up gallery,” according to a news release from the Soho gallery.
The Metropolitan Police told PEOPLE in a statement that they received a call on the night of Nov. 25 about “concerns for the welfare of a person at a locked business.” As they noted, police have “a duty of care to respond when there are welfare concern(s).”
However, once they got inside, authorities discovered that the woman was actually an art installation, which was commissioned by the gallery’s owner Steve Lazarides, according to the gallery. The sculpture, titled “Kristina,” depicts his sister passed out with her face in a plate of soup.
At the time police arrived, Lazarides said a gallery employee “had just locked up and gone upstairs to make a cup of tea.”
“She came down to find the door off its hinges and two confused police officers!” the owner, who is also the former agent of graffiti artist Bansky, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE
Speaking with Artnet News, the employee, Hannah Blakemore, said that police told her that “somebody reported that the woman here has not been moving for the last two hours.”
Blakemore went on to tell the outlet that paramedics were also called in October while the sculpture was on display at a London fair.
“The work is to provoke and it’s definitely achieving that,” the employee remarked.
The gallery said the sculpture, by American artist Mark Jenkins, is made out of packing tape and foam filler — and that Lazarides “commissioned the talking-point piece to sit at any dining table they were selling” in the gallery.
Although not currently for sale, Artnet News reported that if that ever changed, the artwork would cost £18,000 (about $22,000).
When asked about what happened, Jenkins told Insider that while his hyper-realistic work had caused confusion before, he had never heard of something so drastic happening.
