The first edition of Spring Masters New York had a bit of scare during its closing day yesterday, when an transformer fire broke out and the Upper East Side’s Park Avenue Armory had to be temporarily evacuated, reports the New York Daily News.
The fire started in the basement’s electrical room at about 4 p.m., and hundreds of visitors and exhibitors were forced to leave the premises. Some 60 firefighters responded to the call, and were able to extinguish the blaze before any artwork was damaged. The fair reopened at 5:30 p.m. for the final half hour of the day.
Spring Masters director Michael Plummer described the scene in an interview with the Daily News, saying “the alarm started going off and security told us to get out as quickly as possible. People were surprisingly calm even though they were leaving millions of dollars’ worth of art behind.”
Formerly known as the Spring Show NYC, Spring Masters features international art and design from antiquity through the twentieth century.