Ooops! Man breaks 300 year old Chinese Vase

[CapeCodTenor]

I read this story this morning while on the commuter train and had to pass it along. While visiting a museum in England, Nick Flynn tripped on his shoe lace, fell and broke a 300 year old vase. Here's the story on the Boston Herald . I bet he feels bad. I wonder if he can show his face in public. I don't think I could.

Man who broke vases in museum calls it ’regrettable accident’
By Associated Press
Monday, February 6, 2006 - Updated: 01:43 PM EST

CAMBRIDGE, England - A British museum visitor who tripped on his shoelace and shattered three 300-year-old Chinese vases called it a “regrettable accident” Monday, adding that he has been indefinitely banned from returning to the museum.

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge said last week that a visitor broke the Qing dynasty vases when he stumbled down a stairway and brought the vases crashing to the floor.

“I snagged my shoelace, missed the step and crash, bang, wallop. There were a million pieces of high quality Qing ceramics lying around underneath me,” said Nick Flynn, 42, of Fowlmere, a village near Cambridge about 50 miles north of London.

“I have a few household accidents, maybe drop a cup or two or smash a plate, but nothing like this has ever happened to me before,” he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, were donated to the museum in 1948 and were among its best-known artifacts. They had been sitting on a window sill beside the staircase for 40 years.

The museum did not identify Flynn, but he was tracked down by British newspapers.

He said the fall had been a “regrettable accident” but he was surprised the artifacts - reported to be worth $175,000 - had been left on an open window ledge.

“I thought they might take a little bit better care of them,” he told the BBC.

Flynn said he received a letter from Fitzwilliam director Duncan Robinson “not to visit the museum again in the near future.”

The museum has said that it would try to put the vases back together.

 

[Tina]

I agree with the man. You'd think they would have taken better care of them. Accidents happen - especially in public places. Why on earth were they not in a more secure location?

 

[SC Minnie]

Not only one but 3 rare vases!!! I too am surprised they would just have them sitting on a window ledge and not in a case.

 

[mickeyfan2]

"He said the fall had been a “regrettable accident” but he was surprised the artifacts - reported to be worth $175,000 - had been left on an open window ledge."


They should have been better protected by a stairway. People trip on stairs all the time.

 

[roseprincess]

Feel bad for the guy. The museum shouldn't punish him for that.
Yeah, they should have put these vases in a glass-enclosed case away from being touched, esp. not by a staircase. What was the museum thinking? Now if Jackie Chan came by and karoted(sp) the vases, that's a different story.