2025-01-20
A child has damaged a painting worth millions of pounds by the American artist Mark Rothko at a museum in Rotterdam.
A spokesperson for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen said it was considering the “next steps” for the treatment of Rothko’s Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8.
The damage occurred during an “unguarded moment”, a museum spokesperson told the Dutch media outlet Algemeen Dagblad (AD) last week.
A spokesperson for the museum told the BBC the damage was “superficial”, adding: “Small scratches are visible in the unvarnished paint layer in the lower part of the painting”.
The abstract painting is estimated to be worth up to €50m (£42.5m), according to newspaper AD.
“Conservation expertise has been sought in the Netherlands and abroad. We are currently researching the next steps for the treatment of the painting”, the museum spokesperson told the BBC.
“We expect that the work will be able to be shown again in the future,” they added.
Sophie McAloone, the conservation manager at the Fine Art Restoration Company, said that “modern unvarnished” paintings like Rothko’s Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8 are “particularly susceptible to damage”.
This is “owing to a combination of their complex modern materials, lack of a traditional coating layer, and intensity of flat colour fields, which make even the smallest areas of damage instantly perceptible,” she said.
“In this case, scratching of the upper paint layers can have a significant impact on the viewing experience of the piece,” Ms McAloone said.
The Rothko painting was hanging in the museum’s Depot – a publicly accessible storage facility beside the main museum – as part of an exhibition displaying a selection of “public favourites” from the gallery’s collection.
Jonny Helm, a marketing manager at the art restoration service Plowden & Smith, said the incident had implications for UK institutions such as V&A East and the British Museum, which are considering “opening up the display of things that would otherwise be obscured in archives.”
“How will this event affect other UK institutions who are opening up their archives in the same way?” Mr Helm said.
Restoring a Rothko painting is a difficult task because “Rothko’s mixture of pigments and resins and glues were quite complex”, Mr Helm said.
He said the fact the painting is unvarnished – meaning it is “open to the environment” – will pose an additional challenge to conservators.
Conservators working to restore the painting will now likely be in the process of documenting the extent of the damage and researching “historic successful treatments” of Rothko paintings.
“Rothko works seem to have terrible luck – this isn’t the first damaged Rothko we’ve heard about,” Mr Helm said.
Rothko’s 1958 work, Black on Maroon, was deliberately vandalised by Wlodzimier Umanjec at London’s Tate Modern gallery in October 2012. Umaniec was sent to prison for two years and subsequently apologised for his actions.
During his trial, prosecuting barrister Gregor McKinley said the cost of repairing the work would be about £200,000. It took conservators 18 months to repair the painting.
Rachel Myrtle, Head of Specie and Fine Arts at Aon, a company that offers insurance broking to its clients, said fine art insurance policies typically cover “all risks associated with physical loss and damage to artwork”.
This includes “accidental damage caused by children or visitors, albeit with certain exclusions”, she said.
She said that when an artwork is damaged, a gallery’s insurer will appoint a specialist fine art loss adjuster to visit the museum.
The loss adjustor typically “reviews the damage to the artwork, examines any CCTV footage to determine the exact cause of the loss, and assesses conservation options”, Ms Myrtle said.
The museum did not comment on who will be held liable for the damage to the 1960 painting, which the gallery reportedly bought in the 1970s.
The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has previously billed visitors who have caused damage to artworks on display.
In 2011, the museum asked an unsuspecting tourist who stepped on Wim T. Schippers’ peanut butter floor artwork, called Pindakaasvloer, to pay for repairs to the work. Sharon Cohen, a spokesperson for the museum at the time, wax quoted by AD as saying “It is normal procedure for people to pay if they damage art.”
The Rothko painting is described by the museum as an example of colour field painting, a term used to describe art characterised by large blocks of flat, solid colour spread across a canvas.
Rothko’s Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8 painting is one of several works of modern art that have been damaged in the Netherlands in recent years.
In November 2024, multiple screen prints by the US pop artist Andy Warhol were damaged by thieves during an attempted robbery of the MPV art gallery in the town of Oisterwijk.
In another incident, a Dutch town hall admitted it most likely disposed of 46 artworks by accident – including an Andy Warhol print of the former Dutch queen – during renovation works last year.
Museums have different policies when responding to damage caused by children.
In August last year, a four year old boy accidentally smashed a 3,500 year old jar into pieces at the Hecht Museum in Israel. At the time, Hecht Museum worker Lihi Laszlo told the BBC the museum would not treat the incident “with severity” because “the jar was accidentally damaged by a young child”.
The family were invited back to the exhibition for an organised tour shortly after the incident occurred.
[BBC]
In his third IPL match, the 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi brought down to their knees seasoned pros from the best bowling unit in the tournament, some of whom have been playing for longer than he has lived.
The youngest T20 centurion, among the youngest handful centurions in all representative cricket, the second quickest century in the IPL in 35 balls, joint-most sixes – 11 – for an Indian in an IPL innings, highest boundary percentage in a T20 ton, with 94 of his runs coming in boundaries, Suryavanshi knocked off plenty of records. Oh, did we mention that it sealed the chase of 210 in 15.5 overs, the fastest successful chase of 200-plus in an IPL match, after Rajasthan Royals (RR) had lost three straight chases despite bossing 35 overs of those matches?
Suryavanshi’s opening partner Yashaswi Jaiswal played a lovely unbeaten T20 innings of 70 off 40, but he was the first one to admit he was left in the background by “one of the best innings I have seen”.
Suryavanshi tried to hit boundaries off 26 out of the 38 balls he faced. He nailed 15 of those attempts, but also got 25 off the 11 false shots when he tried to attack. The most impressive was a six over long-off off a slower hard-length ball from the tall Prasidh Krishna.
A perfect mix of intent, skill and luck. All at an age when most kids are dreaming of doing exactly what he did. Or do they even dare dream so high?
Surely, there must be teams thinking it is a matter of two wickets, and GT can be toppled. Yet their top three keep churning out runs while making them look easy and risk-averse. At the end of the 20 overs, GT had all their top three in the top six run getters in IPL 2025.
B Sai Sudarshan regained his orange cap, but he wasn’t quite at his most fluent. Dropped on nine, he was dismissed for 39 off 30, but thanks to Shubman Gill’s quick start, GT still had 93 in 10.2 overs. This was the fifth stand of 50 or more for the pair in just nine innings.
Sai Sudharsan’s wicket brought a period of lull created by Wanindu Hasaranga’s three boundaryless overs. There was a period of four overs for 23 runs, which Gill broke with two sixes off Yudhvir Singh’s pace in the 14th over. Immediately after that, Jos Buttler who had got off to a slow start of 7 off 10 balls, laid into Hasaranga first and then compatriot Jofra Archer.
Hasaranga’s figures were rearranged to 4-0-39-0, and Archer went for 19 in the 18th over. Thought RR pulled things back with just 21 runs off the two last overs, not many gave them a chance of avoiding being knocked out.
It might be tempting to think that RR had nothing to lose, which freed Suryavanshi up, but we have seen enough of him in the first two games to know he doesn’t need any external freedom. His first act of disdain came in the first over, off the second legal delivery he faced. Mohammed Siraj, rejuvenated after a break from international cricket, 12 wickets to his name, bowled on a good length, not half-volley, but Suryavanshi launched him over long-on.
At the start of the second over, Jaiswal was dropped, and he celebrated it with a six and three fours by the end of the third over. That was the last time Jaiswal enjoyed any kind of lead. Ishant Sharma was bowling that one extra over to Ricky Ponting in the Perth Test back in 2007-08. Suryavanshi was born in 2011.
Ishant tried to bounce the kid, the kid hooked him for six. He overpitched slightly, and Suryavanshi whipped him over midwicket. Ishant did him in with a slower one, but the momentum of charging down and his amazing bat speed put enough in the mis-hit to clear mid-off. Then he played the regulation cut so hard that the top edge flew over straight third for a six.
Missing Gill because of back spasms in the second innings, GT were being led by Rashid Khan, who went to the offspin of Washington Sundar to the two left-hand batters. At 21, Washington was helping India win the Gabba Test and with that the most ridiculous Test series win of all time. There are levels to it, he was being shown now. Pull, sweep, inside-out drive over cover, and we had the youngest IPL half-centurion of all time, and the quickest this season, in 17 balls.
Prasidh and Rashid brought some sanity to proceedings with ten runs in two overs. Prasidh is the second highest wicket taker this IPL. He is tall and generates disconcerting bounce from hard lengths. He can also bowl a mean slower ball into the pitch. That is exactly what he did. He might have expected some respect, but Suryavanshi hit him for a six over long-off off the back foot. The exclamation mark of the innings.
IPL debutant Karim Janat was just a lamb thrown to slaughter with his gentle medium pace as Suryavanshi hit a boundary off each ball of the 30-run tenth over to take RR to 144. And himself to 94 off 34. The asking rate was now only a trickle above a run a ball.
It was only fitting that the century came through a six. A six off someone who will be on the Mount Rushmore of T20 bowling. Rashid, who bowled four overs for just 24 amid all the mayhem. Just too quick and too accurate to punish. Suryavanshi kept trying without success, but finally broke even Rashid down.
It took a pinpoint yorker from Krishna to send Suryavanshi on a slow walk back. The night he made his debut, Suryavanshi went back with tears in his eyes despite having wowed everyone with a six first ball. He wanted to show more of his batting. Did he ever?
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 212 for 2 in 15.5 overs (Vaibhav Suryavanshi 101, Yashasvi Jaiswal 70*, Riyan Parag 32*; Prasidh Krishna 1-47, Rashid Khan 1-24) beat Gujarat Titans 209 for 4 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 39, Shubman Gill 84, Jos Buttler 50, Washington Sundar 13; Joffra Archer 1-49, Maheesha Theekshana 2-35, Sandeep Sharma 1-33) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
Weather
100 mm rain likely at some places in Central, Uva, Eastern and North-central provinces and in Vavuniya and Mullaittivu districts
WEATHER FORECAST FOR 29 APRIL 2025
Issued at 05.30 a.m. on 29 April 2025 by the Department of Meteorology
The Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (where winds from the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere converge) affects the island’s weather.
Misty conditions can be expected at some places in Central and Uva provinces during the morning.
Showers may occur in Southern and Western provinces and Puttalam, Mannar and Jaffna districts in the morning while showers or thundershowers will occur at most places of the island during the afternoon or night. Heavy showers about 100 mm are likely at some places in Central, Uva, Eastern and North-central provinces and in Vavuniya and Mullaittivu districts.
The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.
Child damages €50m Rothko painting in Dutch museum
IPL 2025: 14 year old Suryavanshi, shatters records to keep Rajasthan Royals alive
100 mm rain likely at some places in Central, Uva, Eastern and North-central provinces and in Vavuniya and Mullaittivu districts
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