You break it, you buy it? The parents of one child are hoping that’s not the case in this situation as their tot managed to damage a painting worth approximately $50 million.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans van Beuningen confirmed the incident.
“The painting Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8 by Mark Rothko has sustained superficial damage after a child touched the painting when it was on display,” the museum said. “As a result, small scratches are visible in the unvarnished paint layer in the lower part of the painting.”
Sophie McAloone, the conservation manager at the Fine Art Restoration Company, told BBC that “modern unvarnished” such as Rothko’s are “particularly susceptible to damage.”
“In this case,” she told the outlet, “scratching of the upper paint layers can have a significant impact on the viewing experience of the piece.”
What Happens With the Painting Now?
The museum said that “conservation expertise has been sought in the Netherlands and abroad.”
“We are currently researching the next steps for the treatment of the painting,” the museum said.
That may be easier said than done, though. Jonny Helm, a marketing manager at the art restoration service Plowden & Smith, told BBC that “Rothko’s mixture of pigments and resins and glues were quite complex,” which will make restoration all the more difficult.
Despite that, the museum said that they “expect that the work will be able to be shown again in the future.”
For now, though, the painting has been removed from the museum’s walls.
The museum declined to state how much the artwork is worth. However, one Rothko painting fetched $86.9 million, and several others went for north of $50 million.
According to Artnet, Dutch collector Bert Kreuk previously stated that the piece was valued around $50 million.
As for who will foot the bill to fix the painting, that remains unclear. However, EuroNews reported that the museum previously asked someone who damaged another piece of artwork to pay for its restoration.
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