Gives a whole new level to the concept of ,'You break it, You buy it.'
Kansas parents may have to pay $132,000 after child damages statue
Kansas parents may have to pay $132,000 after child damages statue
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You break it, you buy it
- Thread starter David1967
- Start date
That's ridiculous.
The statue is what's called an "attractive nuisance".
They allow kids in there.
They know what kids are like.
The consequences are inevitable.
But I have a more cost effective solution.
The parents should go to a garden store, & replace it with a better one....
Audie
Veteran Member
Not a chance.
I think it should stick. Let's forget the price for a moment and just focus on liability. There are several to mention. Take for example the liability of a landlord and those of the tenants. Landlords have to ensure the safety of tenants while the tenants have to ensure that property does not get damage beyond the normal case of wear and tear.
Both sides have a case as I find both sides to be negligent. The owner should have secured the art better. The parents should have been monitoring the kids. The kid did climb up on the artwork and that can be considered willful destruction of property.
The parents should also counter sue but I believe the parents were also at fault.
Now consider the value. The 100k + price is not consider the fair market value. They have to prove that other comparable art would have sold at that same price. I highly doubt it.
Something so expensive should not have been set up where it was as a decoration. Everybody knows that hotel decorations are not so expensive and are easily replaced. Museums have watch people present with its artwork. And, even if the parent, if it was one in the picture, had seen what was going to happen, he or she would not have had time enough to reach the boy in time, imo. Either secure your expensive artwork in a place where no children are allowed or don't be stupid. I bet the owner of that piece might be happy to get the money for it as the whole circumstance looks similar to insurance fraud, imo.
Good question. My thought was, why did they have such an expensive work of art in a community center where children were apparently free to roam. On the surface anyway, it kinda looks like a lack of foresight.
Better set that one on the floor. It would squash someone.That's ridiculous.
The statue is what's called an "attractive nuisance".
They allow kids in there.
They know what kids are like.
The consequences are inevitable.
But I have a more cost effective solution.
The parents should go to a garden store, & replace it with a better one....
PureX
Veteran Member
Very doubtful.
As someone who has worked in the fine art services field, that sculpture would most likely have been insured for exactly this kind of damage, and any other damage that it would be susceptible to in shipping, handling, and showing, by the venue borrowing it. If it were not, the owner would have allowed it to be loaned out. And the value would have been set as part of the loan agreement. So the artist/owner is not gouging anyone after the fact, as some people here seem too imagine.
However, being a community center, it's possible that such a loan agreement was not signed or insured, in which case "reasonable care" would have been expected, and I think reasonable care was given. It would not be reasonable to expect a child to climb on it.
Speaking of kids left unattended. A couple years ago a lady came in my shop with 5 kids. I have some very breakable musical instruments in stock. She was totally oblivious to anything they were doing while she took her time looking around. She didn't buy anything and the whole time I was doing my best to keep the very over caffeinated youngsters off the drums and out of the showcases. When they finally were ready to leave I asked where they were from. She said from a town about 50 miles from here. I gave each child a free kazoo and told her to have a nice day.
People should watch their children much more than they do. In this case, the parents were irresponsible. They should not have let their kids run around *in a museum* and climb on statues.
The damage is a separate issue. How much was the statue worth? That's hard to say. We'd have to look at similar work by that artist recently. The price mentioned seems a bit high, but art is like that. Have an independent assessor look at it.
I agree. If there exists a judge that will agree to even hear this case then I am more persuaded than ever that I might have been dropped off on the wrong planet.
Cacotopia
Let's go full Trottle
Community center? oh jeebus, then that hunk o junk ain't worth 132,000 smackers. I would understand the price in some art gallery full of pretentious elitists, but a community center, give me a break. I bet the artist used a mold and the materials cost less than a 1000 bucks. including the almost no time require in making it if it was a mold.
I wonder if this work of art had previously been valued at 132,000 or if the value miraculously climbed to that amount after being broken?
Audie
Veteran Member
If they did not want children, they had an obligation to say so.
Kinda too bad the kid did not get hurt, then
they could sue the gallery.
The attempt to collect that money may well be
nothing but a publicity stunt. "Artists" do
so love publicity.
Parents in such a place should almost always be within a couple of yards of their kids. Especially if the kids are hyperactive and prone to climbing on things not their own.
But I do think an independent appraiser (assessor?), or even one hired by the parents, should be brought in to evaluate the price of the artifact.
So, either leash the kids or learn to run and hop about.
Or don't take the kids there. Know your kids. If well behaved, no issue. If not, don't take them where they can destroy stuff.