“ Do n’t touch the graphics ” is a simple rule , act out by almost every art gallery and museum in the public . Yet for some rationality , there are a select few who ignore it . Maybe it ’s because their curiosity gets the best of them . Or maybe they ’re on a quest for the perfect selfie . Or perhaps it ’s not on purpose at all , but the result of an chance event . For whatever understanding , the museum - goer below bequeath a lead of mangled artwork in their wakes .
Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix
If any example should be taken from art art gallery mishaps , it ’s that you should never use a valuable work of artistic creation as a piece of furniture . In July 2020 , an unnamed tourist from Austria decided to luxuriate on the adhesive plaster mould of Antonio Canova’sPauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix(1804 ) at Italy ’s Antonio Canova Museum to make his selfie see as cursory as possible . ( Bonaparte was Napoleon ’s sis . ) In doing so , he crumbled the toes of pitiful Pauline , who is show in the sculpture as reclining on a cushion . Surveillance footage prove the man acknowledging the loss of the extremities before walk away . Police later identified him from a museum reservation . He rationalise for the accident and offered to pay up for the restoration work .
Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8
It ’s in all probability a upright idea to keep an middle on kids if they ’re anywhere near a noted body of work of art , as Rotterdam ’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in April 2025 learned the hard way of life . Mark Rothko ’s 1960 paintingGrey , Orange on Maroon , No . 8was hanging in a facility adjacent to the principal building when a chaffer baby touched and damaged it during what the museumsaidwas an “ unguarded instant . ” The museum separate CNN that the art , though to be worth tens of billion of clam , “ sustain superficial damage ” and that “ small scratches are visible in the unstained paint bed in the lower part of the painting . ” The museum does plan to fix the picture and display it again .
Dom Sebastiao Statue
In 2016 , a 24 - yr - old visit Lisbon , Portugal , made a very tough call when he climbed onto a 126 - year - old statueinstalledon the facade of Lisbon , Portugal ’s Rossio Train Station to snatch up a selfie . The freestanding statue , which depict 16th century baron Dom Sebastiao , tumble over and shattered on the ground . The tourer , who attempt to flee , was catch by the federal agency and eventually forced to seem in front of a evaluator ; Portugal ’s infrastructure department has no information about when the statue will be fixed .
Statua Dei Due Ercole
Alcides might have had the strength of the Gods , but unfortunately , that toughness did n’t translate to sculptures of him . In 2016 , two tourer visiting the Loggia dei Militi Palace in Cremona , Italy , damage the 300 - year - oldStatua dei due Ercole(Statue of Two Hercules ) when they climbed on it to take a selfie . The tourists were reportedlyhanging offthe crest of one of the marble build — which deem the Ithiel Town ’s emblem between them — when it gave mode , fallingto the ground . The tourists were tear with hooliganism , and the governing visit in experts to assess the damage .
Ecce Homo
The most famous ( read : hilarious ) art “ renovation ” in story might be 80 - class - old Cecilia Gimenez ’s attempt to fasten a deteriorating fresco painting at a church building in Borja , Spain . Her new and improved art madeinternational headlinesand inspired endless internet memes in 2012.Saturday Night Liveeven do work the news into their Weekend Update segment a twain of times , with Kate McKinnonplayingGimenez .
The painting , a limning of Jesus Christ by artist Elías García Martínez in the 1930s , was flaking due to moisture ; Gimenez , a parishioner at the church , worked off a 10 - twelvemonth - former photograph of the fresco while doing her restoration . When her work was reveal , Ecce Homowas redubbed “ Potato Jesus . ” Gimenez told a Spanish TV station that she had favorable reception to work on the fresco ( which authorities deny ) , and had done so during the day . “ The non-Christian priest sleep together it , ” she said . “ I ’ve never sample to do anything obscure . ”
Though the church had originally planned to work with art refinisher to fix the fresco , by 2014 they had change their melodic phrase . Gimenez ’s artwork became a major tourer attraction , bringing 150,000 visitors from around the world and regenerate Borja . The church service charged $ 1.25 a chief to see the nontextual matter , which waspreservedbehind plexiglass , just like another very famous , memeworthy work of art : theMona Lisa . A center dedicated to the interpretation of the newEcce Homoopenedin 2016 .
Qing Dynasty Vases
Rule number one for entering any blank with invaluable art : tie your shoelaces . In February 2006 , a adult male named Nick Flynn took the wrong stairway inside the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge , England — and when he tried to shift track , he accidentallysteppedon his own unlaced shoe string and fell . With no balusters to seize , the only thing to break in his gloaming were three Qing Dynasty vases from the 1600s and 1700s , which were sitting on a windowsill . Flynn was unscathed , but the vase , deserving more than $ 100,000 , were not so lucky : They shattered into 400 pieces .
“ Although [ I make out ] the vase would go bad I did n’t imagine it would be loose and crash into the other two , ” he said . “ I ’m sure I only hit the first one and that must have flown across the windowsill and hit the next one , which then hit the other , like a set of dominos . ” Flynn , who was reportedly cast out from the museum , called the incident “ just one of those improbably unlucky things that can sometimes happen . ”
This story has something of a happy ending , though : By August 2006 , Penny Bendall , a ceramic restorer , had glue one of the vases — which had broken into 113 patch — back together for an exhibition on art return . “ put the vase back together may have look impossible to most the great unwashed but actually it was n’t a difficult problem — fairly straightforward , ” shetoldtheDaily Mail .
Annunciazione
Should you be given a notch for break something if it was technically already broken ? In 2013 , a Missouri human beings visiting Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence , Italy , wanted to see how the pinky fingerbreadth of a 600 - year - old statue of the Virgin Mary by Giovanni d’Ambrogio measured up next to his own . You be intimate what happened next : The adult male beget a little too airless anddamagedthe statue ’s digit . Thankfully , the finger’s breadth that he broke was made of plaster and not original to the carving , and art restorers grab it quicklybefore it could falland be further damaged . The serviceman apologized , and renovator at the museum made program to repair the finger again . Hopefully the second muddle was more permanent .
The Drunken Satyr
The beneficial news show is this Milan statue , which lost its unexpended leg to an unknown selfie partisan in 2014 , was a replica of another statue that date back to 220 BCE . The bad news is that the replica was still very worthful and reasonably old , go out back to the 1800s . security department cameras in that area of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera were n’t work when the incident occurred , butaccording totheDaily Mail , witnesses saw a student tourist climb onto the statue and sit on its knee to take a photo . What the student did n’t realize was that the statue , made of terra cotta and adhesive plaster , had been assembled in small-arm , and the leg was already partially detach ; museum director Franco MarroccotoldtheCorriere della Serathat the museum was already project to restore the statue before the accident .
The Actor
A 6 - foot - tall Picasso picture is middling hard to lack when it ’s hung on a museum wall , just as the visitant who fall into one back in January 2010 discovered . A woman was attending a class at New York City ’s Metropolitan Museum of Art when shelost her footingand tip intoThe Actor , leaving a 6 - inch tear as well as a ding in the lower right corner of the 1904 artwork . “ We saw the big , coarse thread that looked sort of like a foul jute rug , ” Gary Tinterow , chair of the museum ’s section of nineteenth Century , Modern and Contemporary artistic production , saidin an interview withThe New York Times . “ The question was how to get Humpty Dumpty back together again . ”
That process took three months . Lucy Belloli , a curator at the Met , toldThe New York Timesthat the process imply photographing the canvas , securing snowflake of paint with adhesive , and using strips of paper with cony - pelt glue as patch , as well as a six - week period of realine the picture using small sand traveling bag . ( “ [ T]he torn portion of the canvas had to be gently coaxed back to its flat state , otherwise it would have a tendency to refund to the distortion leave behind by the fortuity , ” theTimesexplained . ) Some retouching was also necessary . The picture was returned to the wall in April 2010 with a level of Plexiglass to protect it ; most visitors would not have been capable to tell the picture was ever damaged .
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A version of this story ran in 2016 ; it has been updated for 2025 .
