Ask ARTINFO: Your Kid Breaks It, You Bought It?

Courtesy Leslie Sacks Fine Art

Henry Moore, "Mother and Child XXVIII" from "Mother and Child" (1983)

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Dear ARTINFO:
I never have more trouble consoling my baby son Henry than when it’s time to leave a museum. He absolutely loves art! I feel so proud that Henry has already developed such a keen aesthetic sensibility, but every time he waddles through a gallery (he’s just learning to walk), I’m afraid he may fall and knock over a priceless work of art. What do I do if my baby breaks a Brancusi?
— Proud Parent, Greenwich, CT


Dear Proud Parent,

If Henry stumbles onto an artwork and breaks it, you should be prepared for the same sort of scene that follows an auto accident. Museum security may detain you and your child, but there’s probably nothing to fear. Most likely you will only need to make a statement about the incident and have eyewitnesses sign off on a report. However, if after investigating the accident the museum believes that your negligence allowed it to occur, then you can expect a lawsuit.

But this is the worst-case scenario. The fact of the matter is that even if your child enters the museum with a crayon and draws dinosaurs on a Degas, you probably won’t be sued for damages. In most cases, legal action against a child would create more bad publicity than it is worth.

While museums are aware that children might “color in” important paintings, diligent parents like you have made these instances rare, and most institutions have elected to risk the occasional repair job rather than keep works behind glass.

So, yes, please do keep an eye on your child’s hands—and while you’re at it, you may also want to watch out for your own. Remember that children tend to be much smaller than the rest of us and they usually can’t reach high enough to cause much damage. Adults, on the other hand, can.

In fact, most museums would be more concerned about you than Henry—at least until he becomes a teenager. Adults and teens may be asked to leave their bags at the door so they don’t turn around and knock over statues or scratch paintings. And guards keep an especially careful eye on teenagers, who often dare each other to make mischief.

And what should you do if an incident does occur? Consider the case of Nick Flynn, whose untied shoes kicked off an international news story. Flynn won his 15 minutes last year when he fell down two flights of stairs and broke three 17th-century Chinese vases at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.

A story like Flynn’s normally would not have garnered so much publicity, but a bystander with a cell-phone camera took a dramatic photograph of the wreckage. The image got the attention of the press, and before long Flynn was giving interviews and leading television crews through the museum, causing some to wonder if he had deliberately destroyed the vases. These suspicions led to Flynn’s arrest—though bad publicity caused the museum to quickly drop the charges.

So, Proud Parent, my advice is as follows: If Henry—or you—does make headlines for marring an art object, you should hire a media consultant to help with “damage control.”

Just kidding. The truth is that no matter what your age, fame does not come easy to the clumsy museumgoer. That’s because museums keep these situations quiet since they don’t want a reputation as “that place where the vases broke.” Unless you deliberately break something, you need not worry about repercussions. All in all, a visit to the museum with your precocious toddler should be no more nerve-wracking than a trip to the park.

I hope that answers your question.

Sincerely,
ARTINFO

ARTINFO thanks Ian McClure, Assistant Director, Conservation, Fitzwilliam Museum; Lindsay Allason-Jones, Director, Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle University; and Brett Littman, Executive Director, the Drawing Center.