Mishap
Dropped on Delivery
The sculpture that didn't survive its own installation
Image: Unsplash
Incident ReportCOA / MISHAPS
Accidental Damage Rating
- Repair Cost
- Six figures and up
- Curator's Blood Pressure
- 95%
- Embarrassment Level
- 8/10
- Recovered?
- Usually
- Selfie Involved?
- No
The most fragile moment in an artwork's life is often the move. Countless masterpieces have been chipped, cracked, or toppled by the very professionals hired to install them.
Crates, forklifts, plinths, and gravity form a perilous alliance. Sculptures have lost fingers and noses during mounting; a famous Roman marble has been knocked from its base; a contemporary piece has slipped from a hoist mid-installation.
Professional art handlers are extraordinarily careful precisely because the stakes are so high — but a single misjudged pivot in a crowded gallery can undo a millennium. The insurance paperwork alone can induce the recorded blood-pressure readings.