Selfie sticks are now banned at the Getty Museum following an altercation between two men on Saturday.
According to witnesses, both men had selfie sticks and engaged in a pseudo-sword fight in the West Pavillion. The ensuing fight damaged many pieces of art resulting in close to $3,000,000 worth of damage as well as closing down the museum for a day.
The men suffered three broken bones and 42 stitches between the two of them and also knocked a hot cup of coffee on to an elderly woman’s lap severely scalding her.
Oddly the men did not have a confrontation over personal space as is usually the case with selfie stick related attacks. Rather Andrew Roline, a tax-attorney from Torrance, loudly claimed artist Jackson Pollock was a hack whose art could be replicated by a 7 year-old with watercolors. Pollock enthusiast, Brad Yule, defended Messier saying that Roline, “Couldn’t tell the difference between a Franz Marc and Francis Bacon.” Profanities were then exchanged before both men took out their selfie sticks and attacked each other.
This is not an isolated incident. In the past year, there have been 239 cases of assault and battery with a selfie stick in the United States. This includes the Disneyland Massacre last January in which six people lost their lives after a fight broke out in line at It’s A Small World.
Another issue developed as Roline used the new Mobo Titanium selfie-stick. Police have noted that since the selfie stick is near impossible to bend, he will charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
“These selfie sticks are better than lead pipes in a fight,” said arresting office Craig Truborn.
In a statement released this afternoon, Mobo denounced the violence stating, “We encourage our users to use their sticks in a responsible way. Our sticks are incredibly hard and should be handled with care. All of our sticks come with a user guide that explicitly addresses hitting people in the face with the stick.”
No photos from the selfie sticks survived the attack.