Feature image belongs to loliepop 1200
Children are bundles of joy, but take away supervision and they can become little wrecking balls.
For example, they don’t mix well with pricey art.
An artist in China built Nick Wilde from Zootopia using thousands of blocks and went three days without sleep. The completed sculpture was worth £10,000 (S$19,542). An hour after the exhibit opened, a young boy posed for a photo and managed to knock the whole thing to smithereens in seconds.
Museum art may not be safe either. A 350-year-old artwork by Paolo Porpora valued at US$1.5 million (S$2.1 million) had a palm-sized hole knocked into it when a young boy tripped, toppled over the rope, and braced himself against the canvas.
Continuing the pattern of destruction, a priceless angel wing sculpture met its maker earlier this year. Two small boys were allowed to play behind the security rope and lifted the glass wing off the wall while their minders filmed them with smartphones. When one finally called them to stop, the boys dropped the wing, which shattered against the wall.
Living creatures may also be in danger. In May, a three-year-old who wanted to “swim with the gorillas” ignored his mother, climbed through three protective barriers at the Cincinnati Zoo, and plummeted into the gorilla pool. Although the child was safe, the gorilla wasn’t. The zoo decided to shoot Harambe, an endangered lowland gorilla, to protect the child.
Children are not adults, and need to be monitored. These wouldn’t have happened if they were well-behaved (which is also the parents’ responsibility). Unless you can screen kids, it’s probably safer for art and wildlife to be tucked a safe distance away to avoid being destroyed. In the meantime, zoo fences could be replaced by tall glass walls, museum barriers reinforced (or electrified?), and Lego bricks glued tighter together.
The kids are in the house.
