On a trip to Florence , a 55 - year - old from Missouri reportedlybroke the finger off a 600 - year - old statueat Museo dell’Opera del Duomo . While the cerebration of a guest clumsily tripping and damaging a small-arm may make nontextual matter fans cringe , it ’s more common than you ’d think . Here are a few more story of museum patrons and art lover who accidentally harmed wanted workings of art .
1. Come for the Martinis, Stay for the Monet
2. The Kids Love Rothko
Abstract expressionism is apparently the most irresistible kid - well-disposed force since Elmo , and something about Mark Rothko’sBlack on Maroonreally speaks to new people .
Over the span of just a few months , two different tots got their mitt on the picture at London ’s Tate Modern . In the first incident , a youngster grabbed the canvass , which damaged the employment by leaving a serial of small dents in the musical composition . Three months later , a two - year - old snuck underneath the barrier that had been set up in front of the painting and go out handprints on the work .
3. Careful with that Boom Mic
Bored toddlers are n’t the only danger to the Tate ’s collections , though . Anish Kapoor ’s 2003 sculptureIshi ’s Lightsustained damages when a film bunch cameraman get laid into it with his tripod in 2007 . The tripod chipped a hunk out of the fiberglass , rosin , and lacquer work .
4. Modern Art? It Makes Me Want to Puke
A few little chip and tears seem wanton compare to the indignity Carl Andre ’s 1980 sculptureVenus Forgesuffered at the Tate in 2007 . A baby became queasy while inspect the verandah , and spew on part of the carving rather of making a beeline for the can . Several of the work ’s steel and copper plate had to be removed for some ( middling disgustful ) restoration employment .
5. Child Pulls Off Frame-Up
French painter Ary Scheffer ’s 1854 workThe enticement of Christis still in one opus , but the same ca n’t be said for its passe frame . A curious child broke several slice off of the frame while the painting was on video display at National Museums Liverpool .
6. Bubblicious: The Bane of the Art World
In February 2006 , the curatorial staff at the Detroit Institute of Arts made an alarming discovery : someone had slapped a lump of gum on Helen Frankenthaler ’s abstract paintingThe Bay . After some investigating , museum administrator learned that a 12 - year - former boy had affixed the chewed chewing gum on the house painting during a school sojourn to the museum . ( Something ’s say us that the incident deflower future field trip for everyone . ) fortuitously , the museum found the mucilage quickly and was capable to remove it , even using a hyperbolise glass to deplumate remain fleck of mucilage off of the private strands of the canvas weave .
7. Mind the Barbed Wire
If you think encasing a museum ’s collection behind bristly wire might help palliate some of this unwanted touching , think again ; it might just make thing bad . Consider Tracey Emin ’s 2005 workSelf Portrait : Bath . One chemical element of the work involve a neon light wrapped in bristled wire , which led to a trouble when a visitor to Edinburgh ’s Gallery of Modern Art got a niggling too close while viewing the piece . The barbed wire got caught in the visitor ’s habiliment , so when he walk away part of the work dragged along behind him . The museum ended up spending $ 2,000 to repair the redress .
8. Keep Your Balance
In 2010 , New York ’s Metropolitan Museum of Art finally got to put Picasso’sThe Actorback up on its verandah bulwark after a three - month reprieve . That January , a patron lose her proportion and fell into the 1904 picture , opening up a six - in gash in the lower right - hired man street corner of the canvass . Luckily , art restoration expert were able to repair the sheet in sentence for the Met ’s large Picasso display .
9. Watch Your Shoelaces
The first thing the 42 - year - previous Flynn managed to catch in his attempt to correct himself was a 300 - year - erstwhile Chinese vase that was display unprotected in a windowsill . Unfortunately , when Flynn hit the vase , it ricocheted into two other vases from the same geological era of the Qing dynasty . The stumble ended up bang up all three vase — which were worth around £ 100,000 — before Flynn came to a rest .
Pretty embarrassing for Flynn , correct ? The humiliation did n’t check there . Two month after the incident , he was arrested on hunch of causing criminal damage and even spent a night in clink after museum officials began to worry that he ’d bankrupt the vases on function . In the end , the museum did n’t press thrill against Flynn , and the restore vases are back on show — in a custom - build case to protect them from any further declination .
circumstances of this tale originally appeared in 2010 .
