A museum visitor shattered three Qing dynasty Chinese vases when he tripped on his shoelace, stumbled down a stairway and brought the vases crashing to the floor, officials said Monday.
The three vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, had been donated to The Fitzwilliam Museum in the university city of Cambridge in 1948, and were among its best-known artifacts. They had been sitting proudly on the window sill beside the staircase for 40 years.
The visitor was unhurt, and is probably just as grateful that his name is not being revealed.
The vases are “in very, very small pieces,” but the museum says it will try to reassemble them.
(via BoingBoing)
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Ouch. My heart hurts just to hear about it.
“very, very small pieces”
Ouch…
So do they bill the guy or what?
“‘It was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident but we are glad that the visitor involved was able to leave the museum unharmed,’ museum director Duncan Robinson said Monday.”
I’m surprised he didn’t need to leave on a stretcher. Priceless artifacts destroyed because some clod is too lazy or stupid to tie his shoelaces… “Gah,” indeed!