Art is an integral part of culture and history, and valuable works of art are often exhibited in museums so that the public can appreciate them. However, these cultural treasures are also vulnerable to accidental damage.
Recently, a child caused damage to a painting by Mark Rothko, entitled “Gray, orange on Garnet, No. 8”, while he was on display at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. The paint, valued at approximately 50 million euros, suffered superficial damage that now requires careful restoration.
The incident occurred during a public visit to the museum. According to the museum’s statement, the child touched the painting at a “without surveillance”, which resulted in small visible scratches in the non -varnished paint layer at the bottom of the work.
The museum has removed the painting from the exhibition and has requested the help of conservation experts in both the Netherlands and abroad to evaluate the damage and plan the next steps for its treatment.
Rothko’s painting was valued at 50 million euros by Dutch art collector Bert Kreuk three years ago. However, the museum has not revealed the estimated cost of repair or who will assume these costs. The restoration of works of art of this caliber can be extremely expensive and take a long time. For example, in 2012, another paint by Rothko, “Black on Garnet”, was vandalized in the Tate Modern in London, and the repair cost approximately 200,000 pounds and took 18 months.
