Children Running In Museum Knock Over $63,000 Glass Sculpture Of Disney Castle

Jul 24, 2020 by apost team

The Disney castle looks both beautiful and majestic. Artwork recreating the famous Disney castle looks visually stunning when placed on display — at least when it stays all in one piece.

This year, a devastating accident at the Shanghai Museum of Glass saw two young children bump into and topple a valuable glass Disney castle. The brilliant work of art shattered, and the museum lost more than the visual display. The losses include the costs associated with the valuable work — £50,000, or roughly $63,000 — which was made up of 30,000 different parts and took 500 hours to make.

Luckily, the parents have agreed to pay for the damage, according to The Sun. Their children decided to play a game of "chase," and parents now must deal with the consequences. The blown glass statue was a rare work of art, and the museum wasn't going to overlook the financial loss. Sadly, the artistic loss can never be replaced.

The "Fantasy Castle" represents a custom work created by the renowned artist Miguel Arribas, as The Sun reports. The glass statue had 24 karat gold spires weaved into it, and the precious metal factored heavily into the statue's value. But don't expect the value to remain high now, as the castle is cracked.

Hopefully, everyone can learn a lesson here.

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As much as we prefer not to admit it, costly disasters can happen virtually anywhere at any time. Finding yourself involved in a potential lawsuit looms even when you take great pains to avoid causing any harm or property damage. Sometimes, you have to do more than watch your actions. Parents must realize they can be held responsible for the actions of their minor children. Therefore, it becomes necessary to take steps to ensure the young ones do not act negligently and bring forth financial liabilities.

Of course, the saying "easier said than done" comes into play here. No adult can keep tabs on a youngster 100 percent of the time. However, it becomes necessary to be mindful of when the little ones do something both risky and potentially costly. Running around in an environment where such behavior is inappropriate can cause problems. The child could bump into someone, trip, or knock something over. In this instance, a tremendously valuable work of art was destroyed.

Are instances of children knocking things over in museums or art galleries rare? It is not as if you will read reports of such incidents in the news every day. However, they do happen. The instances might happen even more than you realize. Just take this news story from 2018. During a wedding reception in Overland Park, Kansas, a child tried to hug a $132,000 statue titled Aphrodite di Kansas City. Suffice it to say that the hug didn't go well and that the parents were on the hook for the damage, as Insider reports.

So, perhaps venues that house rare works of art should take a little extra care to preserve their investments.

Are the barriers set up inside these venues reliable enough to keep children from causing any problems? If harm befalls a rare work of art, maybe questions must be asked about how well the venue cares for items entrusted within its walls.

In this particular incident, the children were able to breach the protective barrier. So, there was something in place designed to impede intrusion. However, the barrier was inadequate. Maybe there is a lesson for museums to learn here, as well. Don't assume a barrier is foolproof if it can be climbed over.

Why not tell others this story and let it serve as a cautionary tale. Parents must be mindful when taking their kids to museums. Otherwise, their children might turn works of art into former works of art. What do you think? Let us know, and pass this unfortunate but interesting story on to friends and family members.