A Reddit post on r/NoStupidQuestions sparked a discussion about museums and what happens when someone accidentally breaks an expensive object. The post, titled “If you accidentally break something insanely expensive in a museum (like a $10M vase), what actually happens to you legally and financially?” had drawn 254 comments as of publication.
One commenter discussed museum insurance, saying the museum would have a policy to cover the damage. However, the commenter added that the museum might try to sue someone if it believed they had been negligent. Another commenter wrote, “Insurance covers it, unless you did it on purpose or were reckless.”
The first commenter further explained that, for insurance to cover damage in such a situation, museums may need to take steps to minimize the risk of an object being damaged or broken in the first place. “So if they have a pot standing on top of a pillar in the middle of a room and someone bumps into it, they might be out of luck, because they should have foreseen that something like that could happen and done a better job keeping the thing safe.”
The commenter continued, “Not put it on a pillar, not put it in the middle of the room, having the stand roped off, etc. So when you go to a museum and they have the object roped off in such a way that you need binoculars to see it, that is why, to keep the object safe.”
A third commenter wrote, “I feel like the onus is on them to protect insanely valuable art pieces from a careless fool. They should ‘factor in’ negligent members of the public when setting up displays - it’s inevitable.”
Another commenter shared an anecdote about a museum visit in Spain. They wrote, “Years ago I did a tour of Spain. One of the stops was a major art museum. Some girl in my group reached out and touched an original painting. I was right there and a female staff member confronted her immediately saying in Spanish, ‘Ma'am do your realize what you've done?’ The offender started crying immediately and apologized saying she didn't know what came over her. The staff made her leave.”
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims made in the thread. The details above reflect commenters' accounts as shared on r/NoStupidQuestions. The commenters' identities have not been confirmed.
