A Kid With A Soda

At an art museum in Japan a little boy damaged a $1.5 million dollar painting. He caused a fist sized hole which can be easily fixed. They are very lucky the drink he was holding didn’t spill. For any painting that old any foreign liquid is like acid, even the oils on our skin.

There are a lot of seemingly stupid rules put in place for museum guests, but these are for protecting the art. One of those is no food or drink being allowed. This is a rule that’s enforced at the front desk, by the guard posted on the door.

Every museum has different policies on food and drink. The Field Museum, in Chicago, for example seems to have lax policies on that. However an art museum filled with delicate pieces, no matter what country, should always enforce the no drinks policy.

It definitely looks like human error on the museum’s part. That’s usually the case where I work; where being posted on the door is the favored post. “At least you get to sit down all day” is typically the reasoning my coworkers have for being posted on the doors. Yes you get sit down all day but that does not mean you are suppose to just sit there and stare into space.

I don’t like working in an art museum, but at least I know you should greet people and prevent certain things from coming in. The tour guide should have said something, the Education department here would think that far ahead though.

This is the kind of accident my supervisors get a hard on over. Because not only do they get to fire someone but they get to play faux cop and investigate the matter. Luckily there was no great harm done, but since it’s an art museum someone is screwed for it.