Kids Break £50,000 Glass Castle After Running Around A Museum

Two kids broke a huge glass castle worth nearly £50,000 ($63,000) after knocking into a display case while running around a museum.

The youngsters damaged the piece, called The Fantasy Castle, which is the largest glass blown castle and took Spanish artist and glassblower Miguel Arribas 500 hours to make. Ouch.

Asia Wire

The castle, which is based on the Cinderella Castle at the Walt Disney World Resort, was on display in Shanghai Museum of Glass. It was given to the museum in 2016 to mark its fifth anniversary.

The 60kg (132lb) castle is part of the museum's permanent collection and has over 30,000 different parts as well as accents in 24 karat gold.

The two children were chasing each other around and climbed over the belt barrier and bumped into it causing it to topple over. I can imagine they had a decent telling off during the journey home.

Asia Wire

The main spire was broken in the incident and others sections were also damaged, but the museum has not revealed the cost of the broken piece or given an update on when it will go back on display.

According to news.cgtn, the parents have apologised for the incident, which happened on 30 May, and have said they will take responsibility for any repairs.

Following the breakage, the museum has urged visitors to follow its guidelines and not run or cross the protective railings while visiting, which seems fair enough.

The museum says it has contacted artists from glass and crystal manufacturers Arribas Brothers, the company that made the piece, to come and repair the castle but they are unable to get out to China due to travel restrictions currently in place.

The Arribas Brothers was started by brother Tomas and Alfonso, who ran a glass blowing business in Spain and were asked to represent their country at the 1964 World's Fair - here they met Walt Disney.

Walt was so impressed by their glass work he invited them to open a shop in Disneyland in 1967. They now have stores at Disney theme parks around the world, including in Shanghai.

Topics: World News

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

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