Taking kids to museums can be a way to introduce them to culture and art, but for some kids, it's boring and as a result, they can get into trouble. While it may be a fun idea to take a stroll and look at art and sculptures, sometimes people fail to remember that kids aren't always going to be mindful of their surroundings.
Two young kids were spending time with their parents at the Shanghai Museum of Glass in 2020, and their behavior got out of hand, which caused them to break an expensive sculpture. There is no report that it ever got fixed, but the thing is, this isn't the first time an incident like that happened.
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The museum was the first to alert people to the damage.
In July 2020, the Shanghai Museum of Glass shared a post on Chinese social media site Weibo, alerting people that "two little visitors" had caused damage of a glass replica of a popular Disney castle.
The post explained that the kids "hit the exhibit counter when they were chasing each other." It also shared that the tower was "demolished," and other parts were damaged as well.
The glass castle took many hours to make.
The glass castle, which is titled The Fantasy Castle, was made by Spanish artist Miguel Arribas, a glassblower who specializes in Disney replicas. The castle, which was gifted to the museum in 2016, took approximately 500 hours to make, featured 30,000 individual pieces and 24-karat gold, according to Today.com.
The artist wasn't upset by the damage.
Due to pandemic lockdowns, artist Miguel Arribas was unable to immediately fix the artwork, but he was eager to do so when he could, according to Rudy Arribas, president of Arribas Brothers, the company behind the piece.
"Luckily it’s not destroyed. As soon as the coronavirus travel restrictions are lifted, Miguel will go to Shanghai and do the repair. He loves to travel," Rudy Arribas told Today Parents. "We're used to kids and this kind of stuff happening," he shared. "Glass breaks. Nothing is done on purpose."
The museum also took the whole thing in its stride.
"The little visitors knew that their behaviour was inappropriate, and, under the encouragement of their parents, reported the incident to the museum staff. Their attitudes were friendly and sincere, and they agreed to help out with follow-up matters," the museum commented on the Weibo post, according to Vice.
"This makes us touched, and we believe that the future generation will be good visitors."
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Online commenters were not so understanding.
Vice shared comments left on the Weibo post, and people were definitely not as kind about the kids and their parents as the museum was.
"The parents should compensate the full amount," one comment reads. "They have to pay the price for not disciplining naughty kids."
"Who are these rascals?" another person wondered. "Don’t they have any manners?"
