Last weekend, a little girl named Sissi Belle and her family made headlines when a woman named Stephanie Theodore photographed her climbing Donald Judd's installation at Tate Modern. Theodore tweeted the photo with the words "Holy crap. Horrible kids, horrible parents. @tate," and it immediately exploded all over the Internet. The parents of the girl have finally come forward and, as expected, are sticking up for their nine-year-old and her "anti-establishment" attitude.
The parents are Kait Bolongaro and Stuart Trevor (formerly of the All Saints brand) and they say that Sissi Belle's only crime was that she was "seduced by a ladder of jewel-coloured shelving." The couple say that their daughter made a "simple faux pas" and honestly don't understand why it has become such a big deal. According to Bolongaro, Sissi Belle had only been on the sculpture for a couple seconds before a woman came over and rudely said "Do you know this is a $10million artwork?"
There was no damage done to the installation and Sissi Belle never had to pay for her actions. She is probably out there right now, riding Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog or hugging Venus de Milo at the Louvre while wearing an "Art Thug Life" shirt.
[via Standard]
