An enormous and impressive paper installation outside the Louvre art museum in Paris that took days to put in place was destroyed by visitors in mere hours, sparking anger on social media.

The courtyard collage was created by French artist JR to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the art gallery’s iconic pyramid. Using 2,000 sheets of paper, and with the help of 400 volunteers over four days, he created an optical illusion that made it appear that the pyramid outside the gallery was rising out of a large quarry of white rock.

The 17,000 sq meter (183,000 sq ft) Anamorphosis installation was completed on Friday, but within hours, members of the public had trampled over the paper and taken strips of it as souvenirs. People weren’t able to properly see the optical illusion because of the damage, and took to Twitter to express their disappointment, with one person describing it as being like looking at a “garbage dump in a hurricane.”

Your project was one of a kind but saturday afternoon it was very difficult to see anything because it was damaged 😢A lot of people didn't respect the place and your work😩What a pity! — Mercedeh Shoe (@GraechenW1) April 1, 2019 The original photos and idea were stunning, but when I went around noon Sunday, it was looking like a garbage dump in a hurricane with all the torn paper everywhere. — bgoodtwit (@bgoodtwit) March 31, 2019 Dégradation volontaire, vol « souvenir », l’installation de @JRart à la pyramide du @MuseeLouvre est vraiment éphémère... 😢 pic.twitter.com/8V7WSZvDAT — Stéphane Joby (@JobyJdd) March 30, 2019

By Sunday, the artwork was completely destroyed by visitors.

Rien. Du papier déchiré. Hyper déçu. pic.twitter.com/qE5dbfIu7U — G3no (@G3noG3no) March 31, 2019 It's still a terrible shame that all those people had to behave like Vandals...beauty should be cherished and valued, not torn to shreds. :( — MC from Perth (@MCfromPerth) April 1, 2019

While many on social media were angry and horrified at the carelessness of those who visited and ruined the installation, artist JR wasn’t too bothered.

“The images, like life, are ephemeral,” he wrote on Twitter. “Once pasted, the art piece lives on its own.” He pointed to the fact that the sun dries out the light glue used and “with every step, people tear pieces of the fragile paper.”

He shared videos of people taking the paper on his Instagram stories, writing, “Love those scene, this is the best part..for some people those pieces will become art again...the rest will just get recycle[d]...merci.”

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“It is to be expected that it would be damaged, but we did not know how quickly it would happen,” the Louvre told HuffPost. “The heat has dried the glue. In any case, it was scheduled to be taken down on Monday, so everything is OK.”

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