"There it is; that's the culprit."

September 22, 2009 10:27 PM

What do you do when some chucklehead trips over his shoelace and destroys three of your 17th century Qing dynasty vases? Put them back together, of course.
posted by gottabefunky (19 comments total)

I had the opposite reaction to the same sentence. I read that as the dude was lucky some overappreciative conservator didn't lunge at him to hug him really hard for all the overtime and the chance to work on something so damn interesting. Don't those people sort of live for this kind of event?
posted by heyho at 10:43 PM on September 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

And to me, it seemed rather lucky that a museum administrator didn't take a swipe at the curator who had the genius idea of placing a pair of Qing dynasty vases on a freaking window sill in the first place.

In any case... the visitor's name wasn't Clouseau, was it?
posted by scody at 10:46 PM on September 22, 2009

All three vases? I have a hard time believing that was accidental.
posted by livingdots at 10:48 PM on September 22, 2009

Previously
posted by hindmost at 10:49 PM on September 22, 2009

Do you ever get that feeling when you're watching tv and you know something horribly embarrassing is about to happen to a character and it's so hard to watch you have to mute the tv or even leave the room? Is there a name for that? I'm kind of having that same feeling now, except about this. Poor Mr Flynn.

That last link is fascinating; what beautiful vases.
posted by frobozz at 10:51 PM on September 22, 2009 [3 favorites]

There is something quite touching about this - all that care and attention and time and money and effort just to repair things with no intrinsic value, done only to preserve objects of remarkable beauty and provenance.

(Of course, the vases themselves are surely very expensive - but only because we, bizarre animals that we are, really value beauty and history.)
posted by mellifluous at 10:57 PM on September 22, 2009

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by ryanrs at 10:58 PM on September 22, 2009

Yes, this is a double.
posted by delmoi at 11:01 PM on September 22, 2009

What do you do when some chucklehead

I didn't do it.
posted by Chuckles at 11:28 PM on September 22, 2009

Fascinating, especially the restoration process. Thanks for posting, gottabefunky!
posted by carter at 11:34 PM on September 22, 2009

Great story. I liked the restoration animation also.
More here:
My precious vase hell by Nick Flynn (chucklehead vase man)
"Everyone asks if I feel guilty, but I actually think I did the museum a favour. So many people have gone there to see the windowsill where it all happened that I must have increased visitor numbers."
posted by PHINC at 11:40 PM on September 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

From that Guardian article: Twenty-five police officers came to my house at 7am, some wearing stab-proof vests, others ready to kick the door in. They had a search warrant, and they handcuffed me, and I spent the night in the cells.

Holy crap.
posted by metagnathous at 11:47 PM on September 22, 2009

I remember the original story - nice to see a happy ending.
posted by Cranberry at 11:51 PM on September 22, 2009

I read that as that dude was lucky that some crestfallen curator didn't pick up a shard and lunge at him, slashing his jugular.

Nah. Porcelain + knowing you have all the pieces + having the decoration documented = a conservator's dream.
Besides, 17th century is practically modern.
posted by Eumachia L F at 12:00 AM on September 23, 2009

Amazing. Not to derail here but...

I'm really disappointed that "sherd" appears to be an archaeological term, and not just a crazy British way of saying shard. Fortunately, I'm still pretty gobsmacked by "gaol." Gaol!
posted by evidenceofabsence at 12:05 AM on September 23, 2009

The restoration process and the photo documentation was fascinating but the auto-photo change thing was really annoying. That, and the lack of full-sized photos for some of the detail shots.

I wholeheartedly agree with bettafish in the other thread, they really should have left the fills plain instead of redrawing the missing bits.
posted by porpoise at 12:08 AM on September 23, 2009

(but wow, that's an amazing jigsaw puzzle. I wonder if the restorer was a "professional" ceramics restorer or someone who's only done it once or twice before?)
posted by porpoise at 12:11 AM on September 23, 2009

All three vases? I have a hard time believing that was accidental.

Haven't you ever seen a cartoon?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 12:28 AM on September 23, 2009

So many people have gone there to see the windowsill where it all happened that I must have increased visitor numbers. They should make me a trustee.

I guess "when you owe the bank a thousand dollars you have a problem; when you owe the bank a million the bank has a problem" applies to museums now?
posted by pwnguin at 1:12 AM on September 23, 2009