Gallery of goof-ups

Remember when Mr Bean's sneeze ruined Whistler's Mother in the 1997 movie? Here are 10 IRL oopsies that damaged precious art

- Sulogna Mehta

Janitor sweeps up a trashy installation.

Damien Hirst's installation at London's Eyestorm Gallery in 2001 was made out of beer bottles, coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays. How was cleaner Emmanuel Asare to know that it was not a pile of rubbish waiting to be cleared? It happened at Italy's Sala Murat gallery too. In 2014, a cleaner handed over scattered cardboard, newspapers and biscuit pieces to garbage collectors, clueless that the ‘rubbish’ was a £8,200 work of art.

Visitor smashes ancient Chinese vases.

Nick Flynn tripping over his untied shoelace spelled doom for three 17th-century Chinese Qing dynasty vases. He tumbled down the stairs of the UK's Fitzwilliam Museum in 2006, crashing into them. They were worth £100,000 and uninsured. He got arrested. But he blamed the museum for their “careless” display. Visitors flocked to the crash site as news spread. He took credit for raising museum footfall.

Rembrandt's The Night Watch, a psycho's fav.

The Dutch master's 1642 oil painting has had its sides cut to fit the wall in Amsterdam Town Hall. Worse, it bore knife attacks in 1911 and again in 1975, when a mentally unstable Dutchman sliced it zig zag with a knife, claiming that he was on a “divine mission" at the "behest of God!" In 1990, a runaway psychiatric patient sprayed it with sulphuric acid. Thank heavens for protective varnish!