Stumbling Museum Visitor Smashes $12K Sculpture

A 9-foot ceramic totem was smashed to smithereens after a visitor to London's Royal Academy lost her balance yesterday and tumbled into the work, the Guardian reports. The "Five Frauleins" in the work by a noted Costa Rican sculptor now number four. Museum officials are discussing the damage with their insurers.

"It was an enormous crash," said one visitor. "Everyone was standing around, and one woman, who I assumed had knocked it over, was standing with her hand on her head. People were still coming into the room and thought it was part of the exhibition. They were taking pictures." Someone eventually came in "with a dustpan to clean it up," she said.
(More London's Royal Academy stories.)